Free Download Books The History of the Siege of Lisbon

The History of the Siege of Lisbon

José Saramago

Paperback | Pages: 314 pages

Rating: 3.81 | 4399 Users | 396 Reviews

Specify Books As The History of the Siege of Lisbon

Original Title:	História do Cerco de Lisboa
ISBN:	1860467229 (ISBN13: 9781860467226)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Raimundo Silva, Dom Afonso Henriques
Setting:	Lisbon(Portugal)
Literary Awards:	Jarl Hellemann -palkinto (2015)

Relation In Pursuance Of Books The History of the Siege of Lisbon

"If proofreaders were given their freedom and did not have their hands and feet tied by a mass of prohibitions more binding than the penal code, they would soon transform the face of the world, establish the kingdom of universal happiness, giving drink to the thirsty, food to the famished, peace to those who live in turmoil, joy to the sorrowful ... for they would be able to do all these things simply by changing the words ..." The power of the word is evident in Portuguese author José Saramago's novel, The History of the Siege of Lisbon. His protagonist, a proofreader named Raimundo Silva, adds a key word to a history of Portugal and thus rewrites not only the past, but also his own life.

Brilliantly translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero, The History of the Siege of Lisbon is a meditation on the differences between historiography, historical fiction, and "stories inserted into history." The novel is really two stories in one: the reimagined history of the 1147 siege of Lisbon that Raimundo feels compelled to write and the story of Raimundo's life, including his unexpected love affair with the editor, Maria Sara. In Saramago's masterful hands, the strands of this complex tale weave together to create a satisfying whole.

Present About Books The History of the Siege of Lisbon

Title	:	The History of the Siege of Lisbon
Author	:	José Saramago
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 314 pages
Published	:	2000 by Harvill Press (first published 1989)
Categories	:	Fiction. Cultural. Portugal. Historical. Historical Fiction. European Literature. Portuguese Literature. Literature

Rating About Books The History of the Siege of Lisbon

Ratings: 3.81 From 4399 Users | 396 Reviews

Notice About Books The History of the Siege of Lisbon

I'd previously read his excellent novel Blindness, but this was even better, both more human and more high-concept. It's a deceptively simple novel, centering around Raimundo Silva, a middle-aged proofreader in modern-day Lisbon who, when given a book called The History of the Siege of Lisbon to proof, impulsively inserts the single word "not" into a crucial sentence about the decision of a Crusader army to come to the aid of an army of Galicians besieging the city of Lisbon during the



I am no fan of Saramago (I tried to read Blindness and it was so devastating that I don't think I made it more than 20 pages), but a novel about proofreaders! Ahh!! An entire novel by a well-respected writer about the totally weird and nichey world in which I spend all my time?? Ahhh!!!

Jose Saramago may not somebody who relies so heavily on plot. He utilizes stream-of-consciousness in "The History of the Siege of Lisbon" as a way to merge the history of the citys past with that of the protagonist living out his life in the modern day. In the novel, conversations bear no quotations, no parentheses appear on added-on ideas/non sequiturs, nor are questions accompanied by a ?. Whole paragraphs are pages long, & it's safe to say that most of them contain a single action or noun

The book is over 300 pages long, contains about 75 paragraphs and only one period per paragraph. Typical of Saramago, and in my opinion, very entertaining. He begins with the story of a rather mediocre proofreader who gets annoyed with the over-confident author of a trade history book (hey, I had one of those on my dissertation committee! Just awful). So the proofreader deletes a "not" from a key passage. The dustjacket claims that this changes the course of history, but Saramago is not a Star

This is one of those books where asking "what's it about" doesn't quite work. The story itself is extremely simple. (view spoiler)[A proofreader adds a "no" to a history book he's reading, gets caught with the lie and, instead of being fired, is asked to imagine the consequences of this alternate history. He does, and in the process falls in love with his boss. (hide spoiler)] But it's the style that makes the book, Saramago's trademark flow-of-consciousness, commas-instead-of-full-stops,

If at first a little tiring, this book certainly makes up for its somewhat unconventional style. As fiction, the story is engaging, but it's the places the text goes in the direction of challenging the orthodoxy of historical writing that is truly memorable. The sacredness of print, the linearity of time (to say nothing of the sentence), and even the value of proofreading (in more ways than one) are all thrown out the window. This is historical fiction at its best.