The Book of Disquiet

The Book of Disquiet is a fragmented modernist novel by Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa. Originally published in Portuguese in 1982 and in English in 1998, the title is a posthumous assemblage of Pessoa’s philosophical musings on life, urbanity, identity, and dreams. The novel is narrated by Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa’s numerous heteronyms, or literary personas. Soares lives in Lisbon, where he works as an assistant bookkeeper. When he isn’t working, he occupies his time writing in his rented room alone or wandering the city streets. His intense isolation fuels his near constant state of daydreaming and philosophizing. The novel employs a fragmented narrative structure and explores themes including Imagination as a Source of Meaning, The Alienating Nature of Modern Urban Life, and Identity as a Product of the Imagination.

This guide refers to the 2003 Penguin Books paperback edition of the novel, edited and translated by Richard Zenith.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include discussion of death by suicide, suicidal ideation, mental illness, gender discrimination, sexual content, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

The Book of Disquiet is written in a fragmented style that defies novelistic conventions. The novel does not abide by a traditional narrative plot line and omits traditional narrative framework. The following summary employs a more streamlined mode of explanation for the sake of clarity.

Bernardo Soares is a writer and assistant bookkeeper living in Lisbon, Portugal. He rents a squalid room on the Rua dos Douradores. The room is filled with cracks and furnished only with a desk, a bed, and a lamp. Soares spends most of his time alone in this space. He has been writing a book for many years that he has yet to finish. Although frustrated with his lack of progress on the literary project, Soares cannot abandon it.

When Soares is not at home working on his book, he is most often reporting to the office. The office where he works is also located on the Rua dos Douradores. Soares finds his occupation tedious and purposeless. He often longs to escape his job and to be rid of his boss, Vasques, and the head bookkeeper, Moreira. Both Vasques and Moreira irk Soares. Though not necessarily unkind to him, they are dull and predictable. Soares sometimes thinks of them as symbols of his entrapping and monotonous life in the city. At other times, however, Soares realizes that if he were to never see Vasques and Moreira again, he would miss them.

Soares spends his days moving between his office and his rented room. He is tired of city life but does not know where else to go or what else to do with himself. He takes long walks through the streets. He observes the trees, rooftops, passersby, and the changing sky. He visits the river and watches the water move. He stops by at local cafés. He orders coffees, smokes cigarettes, works on his writing, and eavesdrops on conversations. Sometimes Soares feels energized by these pastimes. He uses everything he sees and hears as inspiration for his writing. He imagines himself occupying strangers’ consciousnesses or quitting the city and traveling the world. At other times, Soares’s walks through Lisbon fatigue and irritate him. He hates seeing other people happy. He refuses to interact with anyone. He despises the things others talk about. The rain, public gardens, falling leaves, and even blooming flowers enrage him.

Soares retreats to his room. He lies on his bed and daydreams. He stands at the window and studies the city activity below. He hears trains, cars, shopkeepers, and talking. He sits at his desk and writes. He thinks about how alone he is but decides solitude is the only avenue to happiness and freedom. He does not have any friends and has never been in love. Sometimes, he doubts that love exists at all. Other times, he feels as if he could fall in love, but doubts that anyone would reciprocate the sentiment. Often, Soares considers dying by suicide. Life is meaningless and futile. However, he never acts on his suicidal ideation as he does sometimes enjoy being alive. To escape his despair, he will return to his writing, take another walk, lie down and dream, or read.

Soares continues alternating between emotional extremes. He repeats the same patterns, with different results each time. The days, weeks, and months pass. The weather and seasons change. Soares dips in and out of depression. He abandons and renews his writing practice. He visits cafés and continues his bookkeeping work. He tries deciphering the meaning of life and making sense of who he is amidst his banal modern reality.

Finally one day Soares wakes up feeling more positive about himself and his life. He takes a walk and delights in his surroundings. Then he stops at the barbershop and learns that his usual barber has died. Soares leaves the shop in a state of despair. He realizes that his life will one day amount to nothing, too.

Soares lies down in his room and drifts into dreams. He imagines himself traveling to myriad other realms. He keeps moving over seas and landscapes, never arriving anywhere in particular.