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1-Page Summary of The Book of Disquiet
Overall Summary
The Book of Disquiet is a collection of reflections by Fernando Pessoa. The book was published in 1961 after his death, and it contains entries that he wrote from 1912 to 1935. He used the pen name Bernardo Soares, which is why the book reads like a diary or journal as opposed to some other format. It deals with the life of an ordinary man named Soares who works as a simple assistant for someone in Lisbon.
The Book of Disquiet is a collection of many short reflections that are poetic and philosophical in nature. These passages express the inexpressible feelings one has when introspecting about their life, but Pessoa expresses them with a simple style. The book’s themes include the author’s struggle to understand himself and his world.
Some of Pessoa’s arguments are illogical and seem to make no sense. However, his ideas only make sense once we suspend our demand for solid reasoning and logical thinking. For example, he argues that the human heart would stop if it were able to think. In this passage, he suggests a more emotional life than is usually portrayed by literature or art. He also mentions that self-inquiry can lead to alienation as well as happiness.
Pessoa’s reflections are frequently interrupted, as if he is a Siamese twin. He equates the fact of existing with suffering from chronic headaches. The universe itself causes him to feel this way and think deeply about things that have happened in his life or the present time.
Some of Pessoa’s vignettes discuss his favorite writers. His favorites include Shakespeare, Milton, Dickens and Dante. Although he admires these authors, he is critical of them as well; in one passage, he calls King Lear “defective” while expressing his love for its creative spirit. He also discusses his love for the classics of Virgil, Horace and Homer. Some less famous writers are more obscure and include Stéphane Mallarmé, Heinrich Heine (a German poet), Paul Verlaine (another French poet) and François-René de Chateaubriand (an influential French writer).
Pessoa never intended to create a book when he wrote the fragments. Yet, by binding all of them together into one volume, we see how they cohesively fit together and tell a story. Another irony is that “Pessoa” in English means “person”; yet Pessoa often described himself as hardly being a person at all.
