The Borges Enigma: Mirrors, Doubles, and Intimate Puzzles by Cynthia Lucy Stephens (review)

Reviewed by: The Borges Enigma: Mirrors, Doubles, and Intimate Puzzles by Cynthia Lucy Stephens Andrés Libertun The Borges Enigma: Mirrors, Doubles, and Intimate Puzzles. By Cynthia Lucy Stephens. Woodbridge: Tamesis. 2021. x+302pp. £80. ISBN 978–1– 85566–349–7. In this monograph Cynthia Lucy Stephens argues that many studies of Borges's œuvre are rather theory-laden, and those that opt for a biographical approach end up psychologizing too much. While she argues that 'many of the main events of his life served as structuring devices for his fiction', she does not wish to fall into the trap of interpreting Borges's stories in reductively biographical terms (p. 1). She therefore sets out to present 'new readings that steer a midway course between these two methodologies, articulating the personal, emotional, and spiritual dimension of Borges's work' (p. 281). Throughout her book, Stephens engages with the abundant literature on the subject, showing her extensive knowledge of the existing bibliography on the Argentine author. There are some valuable contributions, particularly regarding the literary connections between Borges's texts and those of his precursors, and many of Stephens's interpretations are insightful. However, the book's structure and organization are rather disorienting. The author jumps from one story to the next, sometimes dedicating several paragraphs to one and only a few lines to another. She attempts to connect different texts and concepts, with mixed results. The ideas that the author has chosen to form the link between one section or story and the next at times seem somewhat tenuous or simply dizzying. For example, in the chapter entitled 'The Creator', in just a few pages Stephens goes from a mention of the presence of Schopenhauer in some of Borges's texts to Parolles having his blindfold removed in Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well, interspersing a mention of Borges having undergone eye surgery several times, followed by a mention of Stevenson's own End Page 281 sense of inferiority as he felt that he was unable to 'live up to the expectations of his family patriarchy' (p. 234). Stephens then goes back to Parolles's assertion of his self-identity by leaving 'the sword to rust', moving on finally to a discussion of swords in Borges's works (pp. 232–35). The same applies to Stephens's choice of chapters. At times one wonders if the arguments offered really do warrant their inclusion in a chapter under that specific rubric. For instance, Stephens discusses 'doubles' (following the tradition of the Doppelgänger) in a homonymous chapter, but perhaps 'Identity' would have been a more suitable title, given that she also mentions stories such as 'El inmortal', which deal not only with doubles, but with notions regarding personal identity more broadly (that is, Borges's quintessential effacing of the self, one man being all men, and so on, as Stephens herself mentions). By the same token, the author discusses certain aspects in some chapters that could just as well have been included in others, and there is also a fair degree of repetitiveness. In the sixth chapter, for instance, she mentions the story 'La rosa de Paracelso' that had been treated earlier, discusses one translation of this story, and writes about Robert Browning as a literary precursor. That is, she here discusses translation and literary forebears at some length, although specific chapters have already been devoted to these issues ('Translation' and 'Allusiveness' respectively). Stephens offers some interesting and often original insights into Borges's rich and complex fictions, although she also often rehashes earlier interpretations of his texts. She then relates certain aspects of the stories to some biographical detail. In some instances, these biographical references do shed interpretative light on Borges's fictions, but in others they merely echo what other scholars had already observed. On occasion the interpretations seem rather far-fetched or too speculative. In a somewhat unorthodox Conclusion Stephens summarizes the stories she has discussed throughout the book at length, again rehashing interpretations of Borges's fictions along with some biographical detail or other. In sum, Stephens presents the reader with some interesting insights and readings, but the book arguably suffers from...