End of the Game
Julio CortázarNanhai Publication Company2020
Rating 4.5- Word count
- 105K words
- Chapters
- 1
- Series
- Vintage International: Julio Cortázar
- ISBN
- 9787544280709
Tags
Literature Foreign Literature Fantasy LiteratureShort StoriesShort Story CollectionLatin AmericaLatin American LiteratureLiterary BoomSpanish LanguageArgentinaSummary
End of the Game (Spanish: Final del juego) is one of Argentine writer Julio Cortázar's early short-story collections. The Chinese edition, translated by Mo Yani, was previously included in the People's Literature Publishing House's Short Classics series, and in 2020 the South China Sea Publishing Company released a hardcover collector's single-volume edition produced by New Classic Culture. The volume collects eighteen stories in three parts, including "Continuity of Parks," "No One to Blame," "The River," "Poison," "The Hidden Door," "Night of the Maenads," "The Idol of the Cyclades," "A Yellow Flower," "After Dinner," "The Band," "Friends," "Motive," "The Little Bull," "Story from the Bottom of the Water," "After Lunch," "Axolotl," "Night, Face Up," and "End of the Game." Most of these stories are set in Buenos Aires or Paris, beginning in ordinary daily life and then steadily sliding toward surreal detours: the murderer a reader encounters in a novel appears behind him; a woman sinks between dream and river; a band glimpsed in a movie theater becomes impossible to tell real from false; children's innocence conceals quiet cruelty. Cortázar himself regarded the short story as a "closed form" or "sphere," seeking internal tension and structural self-sufficiency, and often overturning the whole piece with an unexpected final sentence. The title story follows several girls who strike poses beside the railway tracks, like statues, to attract the attention of passing train passengers; one sick girl thus forms a subtle, fragile relationship with a passing industrial-college student, and once the distance is erased, the illusion shatters. The collection interweaves exchanged identities, loss of order, realized nightmares, and the soft sorrow of the childhood world, marking an important transitional period in Cortázar's move from aesthetic experiment toward metaphysical inquiry.Editor's review
马尔克斯曾说，科塔萨尔是屈指可数的几个能同时唤起尊敬、崇拜、依恋与妒忌的作家之一，此外还能唤起一种不太常见的情感：虔诚。这本《游戏的终结》正是理解他为何迷人的好入口：十八个短篇，篇幅都不长，却每一篇都像一只被严密合拢的盒子，直到最后一行才“咔哒”一声打开。科塔萨尔几乎从不铺陈怪诞，他总是从再普通不过的地方起笔，比如公园里读小说的男人、晚饭后的闲谈、铁路旁百无聊赖的孩子，然后悄无声息地把地板抽走，让读者悬置在现实与幻想的夹缝里。南海版采用莫娅妮的译文（此前“短经典”版本已获读者口碑），文字清亮、节奏准确，较好地保留了原作那种冷静中带点顽皮的语气；精装小32开，便于随身携带。对于习惯情节型小说的读者，它或许需要一点耐心；但若你愿意把阅读当作一场游戏，愿意接受被作者牵着走、又在最后一刻被推下台的乐趣，这本集子会给你留下长久的余味。Who it's for
A good fit for
- 喜欢拉美“文学爆炸”、读过博尔赫斯或马尔克斯的读者
- 偏爱短篇小说与叙事实验、享受结尾反转的读者
- 写作或学习小说技巧、想研究“封闭结构”的创作者
- 想用零碎时间读完整短篇的通勤读者
Not a good fit for
- 希望读到完整长篇故事、强情节连续叙事的读者
- 对开放式结局和模糊叙述缺乏耐心的读者
- 期待魔幻现实主义宏大史诗场面的读者
Reading tips
- 先读开篇《公园续幕》，短短千余字即可感受科塔萨尔的结构魔术，再决定读法。
- 不必一次读完整本，每天一至两篇，让每篇的余味在脑子里停留一阵。
- 读到结尾那句前先别急着合书，回过头重读开头，常会发现作者早已埋下线索。
- 可搭配博尔赫斯短篇或《动物寓言集》对读，体会同一传统下两种不同的幻想路径。
About the publisher
Nanhai Publication Company China · Founded in 1988Nanhai Publication Company is a comprehensive publisher known for its literature and arts titles, covering fields such as classical poetry, martial arts fiction, and folk literature. Judging from the more than 1,600 books in the database, the company has released classical poetic works including the Nineteen Old Poems and the Nine Songs, as well as multiple volumes of Huanzhulouzhu's series The Swordsmen of Mount Shu, along with related writings by authors such as Guan Hanqing, Qu Yuan, Zuo Si, and Wang Zhihuan. Its publishing character lies in balancing the organization of classic texts with the dissemination of popular literature, placing poetry anthologies alongside long martial arts novels and presenting a relatively diverse literary profile. Public information is limited, and further details about its editorial practices and series planning remain to be supplemented.
Contents
- New Classic Library: Works of Julio Cortázar
FAQ
这本书一共有多少个短篇？
共十八个短篇，分三辑编排：第一辑从《公园续幕》到《迈那得斯之夜》，第二辑从《基克拉泽斯群岛的偶像》到《小公牛》，第三辑从《水底故事》到书名篇《游戏的终结》。《游戏的终结》和《被占的宅子》是什么关系？
《被占的宅子》是南海出版公司2017年推出的“科塔萨尔短篇小说全集”第一辑，其中收录了《彼岸》《动物寓言集》《游戏的终结》三部短篇集。本条目则是《游戏的终结》单行本，只有这一部集子的十八篇。人民文学版和南海版有什么差别？
人民文学出版社2012年版收入“短经典”书系，译者同为莫娅妮；南海出版公司2020年版为新经典文化出品、经修订译文后的精装典藏单行本，收录篇目相同，装帧与排版不同。没读过科塔萨尔，从这本开始可以吗？
可以。这本属于他的早期短篇集，篇幅短、结构清晰，比《跳房子》这样的长篇实验作友好得多。若想再轻松些，也可先读《动物寓言集》。This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Julio Cortázar AuthorJulio Cortázar is one of the most influential short-story writers in Latin American literary history; his nationality and dates of birth and death are limited in publicly available sources, so no specific details are given here. This library holds three of his works, including End of the Game, All Fires the Fire, and Bestiary, all classified under literature and foreign literature. Cortázar is known above all for his short stories, which embed the absurd and the surreal within everyday order; his narratives often break linear time and causal logic, and his language is concise and experimental. His works have had a profound influence on later Latin American and world literature, and he is regarded as a bridge between fantasy literature and traditional narrative. His distinctive style continues to attract readers and scholars alike.