A Universal History of Infamy

Style and Technique

Borges’s style in A Universal History of Infamy is marked by meticulous precision and refined conciseness, with each word polished like a precious stone. His prose is rich in allusions, historical reminiscences, and subtle irony, lending the narrative a distinct intellectual depth. The author masterfully employs metaphors and paradoxes, creating an atmosphere of mystery and ambiguity, and his sentences often have the ring of aphorisms. The book’s structure is mosaic: the stories form a whimsical panorama of human vices and passions, each episode a self-contained miniature, yet together they create a unified canvas woven with the theme of the ambiguity of human nature. Borges skillfully plays with genre, combining elements of chronicle, essay, and parable, allowing him to move freely between documentary accuracy and artistic invention. His narrative is built on contrasts, surprises, and subtle psychological nuances, while his narrative distance and ironic detachment turn the chronicle of crimes into a philosophical meditation on the nature of evil and human destiny.