The Infinite Library Read Online Free Page A

was staggering: my reason tried to pave over the contradictions with justifications. How could a text, described by Borges, antedate his invention of it some three hundred years? Unless Borges actually discovered this text and incorporated it into his fiction… but it seemed absurd that anyone would have sank money into the publishing of a text of this nature that has no author, title, or intelligible sense. Was it anecdotal? No, it was indeed published…A splendid Elzevir edition, or an impeccable copy of their trademark style. I knew it not to be a code, and so was amazed that such an old text would actually sport this glyptolalia. It all seemed too fantastical to me. I thought to myself that some enterprising individual had been able – at considerable cost – to acquire the skills of a very good book binder with all the genuinely dated materials to perpetrate a very convincing hoax. I had read about this in the popular book by Perez-Reverte, The Dumas Club . The one good wrinkle of realism to the tale was the explanation of how difficult it is to counterfeit books.
    Castellemare leaned over and whispered, “I have the entire contents of Borges’ library of Babel, and much more. Take these with you tonight, and I will expect you soon. Here is my calling card. Do not lose these books.”
    He gave me an elegant maroon card with his name in gold leaf:
     
    Tho. VON Castellemare, Esq.
    Chief Bibliomarch of the Library of Enigmae
    Consultant of the Obscure
    2-9065-3966
    190 Rue Velasquez
     
    He departed, tossing a heap of bills in his place. I merely sat there, dumbfounded and in dire need to regain my bearings after such a bizarre chance meeting. I resolved to call him the next day, but to first consider if this was just an elaborate hoax by a master charlatan. Once I returned to my hotel, I asked the concierge to send up the necessary connections for my laptop so that I could do an exhaustive search on Castellemare and any mention of these two impossible editions he saddled me with.
    The results of my careful examination of the two texts Castellemare had entrusted me with did indeed verify the age of the material, the ink, and the like. I have made it habit when mulling over the purchase of a rare antiquarian text to bring with me a very portable lab composed of a few select chemicals to determine the authenticity of a text in question. The results were positive, but I could not rule out that these two books were not somehow expertly created, and if so it would have cost a fortune to do so convincingly enough to fool an expert in my field. However, given the examples of financial largesse Castellemare demonstrated by promise and deed, I could not rule out that these books were forgeries commissioned by him for the purposes of some joke. Unlike others in my field, I pay divided attention to both the use of paper and of ink. I believe that these should be studied separately, and to resist conflating the two into a single flattened product, or privileging one at the risk of dismissing the other.
    The insoluble riddle in the existence of these two books taunted me, almost as much as Castellemare had. Why did he choose me? Why was I even considering so favourably to take up his offer?

 
     
     
     
     
    2
    Magic as Realism
     
    M y most general project has been in the quiet murmurs and inconsequential findings I have fed into a variety of extremely niche journals. It is rather clear that my meagre scholarly reputation has lived off these few occasional scraps of effort, and that I financially rely on using my skills as a book sleuth to supplement my income. Mercenary in a book speculation enterprise, more like. I had never anticipated, prior to meeting Castellemare, that mystery could take such an uncanny path, something that would adumbrate my sense of what was real. Perhaps more crucially, and although I had long lived it without realizing it, was the fact that mystery and tragedy always appear entwined in a narrative