"Readers with a particular interest in modernism will find this work indispensable."-- Publishers Weekly "Pessoa's amazing personality is as beguiling and mysterious as his unique poetic output."--William Boyd A self-deprecating reflection on the sheer distance between the loftiness of feelings and the humdrum reality of life, The Book of Disquiet is a classic of existentialist literature. Fernando Pessoa , one of the founders of modernism, was born in Lisbon in 1888. Most of Pessoa's writing was not published during his lifetime: The Book of Disquiet was first published in Portugal in 1982.