Poetry

Begin with Neruda's memoirs, Confieso que he vivido, 1974. Equally stimulating is the correspondence with Héctor Eandi (ed. Aguirre, 1980).

A small anthology of the best of Neruda's poetry would include poems 1, 13, 15, 17 and 20 from the Veinte poemas; ‘Galope muerto’, ‘Tango del viudo’, ‘Arte poética’, ‘Sonata y destrucciones’, ‘Walking around’, ‘Caballero solo’, ‘Agua sexual’, ‘Oda a Federico García Lorca’ and ‘No hay olvido (Sonata)’ from Residencia en la tierra I and II; ‘Explico algunas cosas’ and ‘Las furias y las penas’ from Tercera residencia; ‘Alturas de Macchu Picchu’ and ‘La arena traicionada’ from Canto general; ‘Oda a la alcachofa’ and ‘Oda a la cebolla’ from Odas elementales. Best available text with translations is Stavans, 2003.

Critics

In English, begin with Feinstein's biography; the best critics are Manuel Durán and Margery Safir, 1981, René de Costa, 1979, Robert Pring-Mill, 1975, Enrico Mario Santí, 1982, Christopher Perriam, 1989 and Dominic Moran, 2006 (full details in the Bibliography). Best interview in English, Rita Guibert, Paris Review, 51, 1971.

In Spanish, there are many biographies, from the chatty Jorge Edwards, 1990, to the most complete, Loyola, 2006. I still like Emir Rodríguez Monegal's mix of literary criticism and biography, 1966. For literary criticism in Spanish, consult the classic book on Neruda by Amado Alonso, 1940. The views of Saúl Yurkievich, Jaime Concha and Hernán Loyola (see Bibliography) are always well-considered. The essays edited by Flores, 1974 and 1987, and by Schopf, 2003, are excellent as surveys of critical approaches.