The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis

Fernando Pessoa

As searing as Rilke or Mandelstam.

The New York Times

A bilingual collection of exquisite poems and prose by one of Fernando Pessoa’s most famous “heteronyms,” Ricardo Reis.

Available Apr, 07 2026

The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis

Poetry by Fernando Pessoa

Translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari

Here is the fourth in a series of volumes by Fernando Pessoa’s celebrated “heteronyms,” a coterie of writers that Pessoa created and conceived as distinct personalities, each with a unique literary style. Ricardo Reis was imagined as a melancholic doctor “with a darkish complexion,” a self-taught Hellenist who exiled himself in Brazil because he was a monarchist. In a 1914 letter to Pessoa, the writer Mário Sá-Carneiro described Reis’s odes as “admirable,” “a marvel of impersonality,” praising the way he “achieved a Horatian, classical novelty.’” Based on the definitive Tinta-da-China edition, published in Lisbon in 2016, this bilingual collection includes an illuminating introduction by Pessoa scholar Jerónimo Pizarro, facsimiles of original manuscripts, and prose excerpts written by Ricardo Reis on art, on life, and on the writings of Pessoa’s other heteronyms. Magnificently translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari, The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis is a must-have collection by one of Pessoa’s most refined heteronyms.

Buy The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis

Paperback

published: Apr, 07 2026

ISBN:
9780811237895
Trim Size:
5x8
Page Count:
272

Ebook

published: Apr, 07 2026

ISBN:
9780811237901

As searing as Rilke or Mandelstam.

The New York Times

Indispensable.

Publishers Weekly

Arguably, the four greatest poets in the Portuguese language were all Pessoa using different names.

NPR
Buy The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis