Shakespeare's Memory - Plot

Plot

The main protagonist and narrator is Hermann Sörgel, a self-described devotee of Shakespeare. After giving a short list of works that he has written on Shakespeare, he tells the story of how he came to be in possession of Shakespeare's Memory: He meets a man named Daniel Thorpe at a Shakespeare conference, and after relating a story about a ring that had a price so high it could never be sold. Thorpe then offers Sörgel Shakespeare's memory, and after a short retelling of how he managed to get hold of it, passes it on to him. The memory, Thorpe says, has to be 'discovered': Sörgel whistles melodies he has never heard, and slowly starts seeing unknown faces in his dreams. Later, he gains insights into Shakespeare's works and techniques, and considers but decides against writing a biography. Soon after, Shakespeare's memory almost overwhelms his own: one day he becomes confused as he does not recognise engines and cars. Finally he decides to give away the memory by telephone: he phones random numbers (sparing women and children from the memory), and at last gives the memory to a man on the other end of the phone.

Jorge Luis Borges
Bibliography
Original
collections
A Universal History of Infamy
"On Exactitude in Science"
Ficciones
"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"
"The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim"
"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote"
"The Circular Ruins"
"The Lottery in Babylon"
"An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain"
"The Library of Babel"
"The Garden of Forking Paths"
"Funes the Memorious"
"The Form of the Sword"
"Theme of the Traitor and the Hero"
"Death and the Compass"
"The Secret Miracle"
"Three Versions of Judas"
"The End"
"The Sect of the Phoenix"
"The South"
The Aleph
"The Immortal"
"The Dead Man"
"The Theologians"
"Emma Zunz"
"The House of Asterion"
"Deutsches Requiem"
"Averroes's Search"
"The Zahir"
"The Writing of the God"
"The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths"
"The Wait"
"The Aleph"
Dreamtigers
"Borges and I"
Dr. Brodie's Report
"The Encounter"
"The Gospel According to Mark"
The Book of Sand
"The Other"
"Ulrikke"
"The Congress"
"There Are More Things"
"The Disk"
"The Book of Sand"
Shakespeare's Memory
"Blue Tigers"
"Shakespeare's Memory"
Other works
  • A New Refutation of Time
  • Borges on Martín Fierro
  • "El Golem"
  • Book of Imaginary Beings
  • Labyrinths
Fictional works,
characters etc.
  • Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge
  • The Conversation with the Man Called Al-Mu'tasim
  • H. Bustos Domecq
  • Pedro Mata
  • Uqbar

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