This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.
Accompanied by a thorough introduction to Brazil's Machado, Machado's Brazil, these vibrant new translations of eight of Machado de Assis's best-known short stories bring nineteenth-century Brazilian society and culture to life for modern readers.
Machado de Assis's first novel visits themes the author developed exquisitely throughout his career including marriage, memory, and perspective. In this insightful translation by Karen Sherwood Sotelino, and with an introduction by José Luiz Passos, the novel reveals the author’s early experiment in drawing out psychological and sociological issues of his times. Readers familiar with his mature works will recognize the progression from infatuation, through passion, doubt, and toxic jealousy, as experienced by protagonists Félix and Lívia in 19th century Rio de Janeiro.
New York Times Critics’ Best of the Year A landmark event, the complete stories of Machado de Assis finally appear in English for the first time in this extraordinary new translation. Widely acclaimed as the progenitor of twentieth-century Latin American fiction, Machado de Assis (1839–1908)—the son of a mulatto father and a washerwoman, and the grandson of freed slaves—was hailed in his lifetime as Brazil’s greatest writer. His prodigious output of novels, plays, and stories rivaled contemporaries like Chekhov, Flaubert, and Maupassant, but, shockingly, he was barely translated into English until 1963 and still lacks proper recognition today. Drawn to the master’s psychologically probing tales of fin-de-siecle Rio de Janeiro, a world populated with dissolute plutocrats, grasping parvenus, and struggling spinsters, acclaimed translators Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson have now combined Machado’s seven short-story collections into one volume, featuring seventy-six stories, a dozen appearing in English for the first time. Born in the outskirts of Rio, Machado displayed a precocious interest in books and languages and, despite his impoverished background, miraculously became a well-known intellectual figure in Brazil’s capital by his early twenties. His daring narrative techniques and coolly ironic voice resemble those of Thomas Hardy and Henry James, but more than either of these writers, Machado engages in an open playfulness with his reader—as when his narrator toys with readers’ expectations of what makes a female heroine in “Miss Dollar,” or questions the sincerity of a slave’s concern for his dying master in “The Tale of the Cabriolet.” Predominantly set in the late nineteenth-century aspiring world of Rio de Janeiro—a city in the midst of an intense transformation from colonial backwater to imperial metropolis—the postcolonial realism of Machado’s stories anticipates a dominant theme of twentieth-century literature. Readers witness the bourgeoisie of Rio both at play, and, occasionally, attempting to be serious, as depicted by the chief character of “The Alienist,” who makes naively grandiose claims for his Brazilian hometown at the expense of the cultural capitals of Europe. Signifiers of new wealth and social status abound through the landmarks that populate Machado’s stories, enlivening a world in the throes of transformation: from the elegant gardens of Passeio Público and the vibrant Rua do Ouvidor—the long, narrow street of fashionable shops, theaters and cafés, “the Via Dolorosa of long-suffering husbands”—to the port areas of Saúde and Gamboa, and the former Valongo slave market. One of the greatest masters of the twentieth century, Machado reveals himself to be an obsessive collector of other people’s lives, who writes: “There are no mysteries for an author who can scrutinize every nook and cranny of the human heart.” Now, The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis brings together, for the first time in English, all of the stories contained in the seven collections published in his lifetime, from 1870 to 1906. A landmark literary event, this majestic translation reintroduces a literary giant who must finally be integrated into the world literary canon.
Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Brazilian writers of all time. Author of "Dom Casmurro," "Memórias Póstumas de Braz Cubas," "Quincas Borba," and dozens of other unforgettable titles, Machado was a complete author, having written novels, short stories, poems, plays, critiques, chronicles, and correspondence. In the genre of short stories, Machado published over two hundred stories, always with the enormous talent that is peculiar to him, which makes any selection of his best short stories a challenging task; but it has been done! " Machado de Assis Best Short Stories" brings the reader an exquisite selection of his best stories, recognizing in each of them the unparalleled talent of this brilliant Brazilian writer.
Enchanting, fresh translations of the finest stories by Brazil’s greatest writer and author of short stories, cited as the greatest black writer in Western literature “Machado de Assis showed the human comedy is the same everywhere, and in conflicts between man and society, society usually wins.” --The New Yorker Machado de Assis is one of the most enigmatic and fascinating story writers who ever lived. What appear at first to be stately social satires reveal unanticipated depths through flashes of darkness and winking surrealism. This new selection of his finest work, translated by the prize-winning Daniel Hahn, showcases the many facets of his mercurial genius. A brilliant scientist opens the first asylum in his home town, only to start finding signs of insanity all around him. A young lieutenant basks in praise, but in solitude feels his identity fray into nothing. The reading of a much-loved elder statesman's journals reveals hidden thoughts of merciless cruelty. This beautiful new collection of fresh translations offers the perfect gathering of his most beloved stories: The Fortune-Teller The Posthumous Portrait Gallery The Loan The Tale of the Cabriolet The Stick The Secret Cause The Canon, or Metaphysics of Style The Alienist The Looking-Glass Midnight Mass
One of the wittiest, most playful, and . . . most alive and ageless books ever written." --Dave Eggers, The New Yorker A revelatory new translation of the playful, incomparable masterpiece of one of the greatest Black authors in the Americas A Penguin Classic The mixed-race grandson of ex-slaves, Machado de Assis is not only Brazil's most celebrated writer but also a writer of world stature, who has been championed by the likes of Philip Roth, Susan Sontag, Allen Ginsberg, John Updike, and Salman Rushdie. In his masterpiece, the 1881 novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (translated also as Epitaph of a Small Winner), the ghost of a decadent and disagreeable aristocrat decides to write his memoir. He dedicates it to the worms gnawing at his corpse and tells of his failed romances and halfhearted political ambitions, serves up harebrained philosophies, and complains with gusto from the depths of his grave. Wildly imaginative, wickedly witty, and ahead of its time, the novel has been compared to the work of everyone from Cervantes to Sterne to Joyce to Nabokov to Borges to Calvino, and has influenced generations of writers around the world. This new English translation is the first to include extensive notes providing crucial historical and cultural context. Unlike other editions, it also preserves Machado's original chapter breaks--each of the novel's 160 short chapters begins on a new page--and includes excerpts from previous versions of the novel never before published in English. For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
In his posthumous memoirs, Braz Cubas, a wealthy nineteenth-century Brazilian, examines (from beyond the grave) his rather undistinguished life in 160 short chapters that both cover the basics of his existence and open out into philosophical explorations that sometimes follow meandering paths of thought to unexpected places, at times exuberant and hilarious, at other times cynical and utterly at odds with the world around him. In the tradition of Laurence Sterne and Jonathan Swift -- and as a clear forerunner of the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges -- Epitaph of a Small Winner, first published in 1880, is one of the wittiest self-portraits in literary history, as well as quite possibly the greatest novel you have never heard of"--Page 4 of cover.
This “watershed collection” (Wall Street Journal) now appears in an essential selected paperback edition, with twenty-six of Machado’s finest stories. Widely acclaimed as “the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America” (Susan Sontag), as well as “another Kafka” (Allen Ginsberg), Machado de Assis (1839–1908) was famous in his time for his psychologically probing tales of fin-de-siecle Rio de Janeiro—a world populated with dissolute plutocrats, grasping parvenus, and struggling spinsters. In this original paperback, Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson, “the accomplished duo” (Wall Street Journal) behind the “landmark . . . heroically translated” volume (The New Yorker) of the Collected Stories of Machado de Assis, include twenty-six chronologically ordered stories from the seven story collections published during Machado’s life—featuring all-time favorites such as the celebrated novella “The Alienist”; the tragicomic “parable of bureaucracy, madness, and power” (Los Angeles Review of Books), “Midnight Mass”; “The Cane”; and “Father Against Mother.” Ultimately, Machado de Assis: 26 Stories affirms Machado’s status as a literary giant who must finally be fully integrated into the world literary canon.
The love story that the Counselor narrates revolves around Fedilia and Tristao, who both are the godchildren of childless couple Aguiar and Dona Carmo. It is thought that the marriage between Aquiar and Dona Carmo is modeled after the relationship between de Assis and his wife, Caroline. The Counselorʹs diary entries chronicles Fideliaʹs transition from a widow bent on a lifelong habit of mourning her dead husband to a woman who rediscovers the world of the living and of love. Written in the late 1880s, the counselorʹs diary documents some of the social changes taking place in Brazil. There are several mentions of slavery and its abolition on May 13, 1888. The counselor does not himself engage much with the issue saying that old ways of thinking prevail even as he recognizes that he should assume more responsibility and interest in the matter. This stance apparently reflects the authorʹs own public disengagement with the issue of slavery and its abolition. de Assis, whose father was a mulatto, has been heavily criticized for not politicizing his works and addressing the plight of black Brazilians in his works. I disagree with this sentiment. -- Description from http://kinnareads.wordpress.com (Oct. 24, 2011).
Enchanting, fresh translations of the finest stories by Brazil’s greatest writer and author of short stories, cited as the greatest black writer in Western literature “Machado de Assis showed the human comedy is the same everywhere, and in conflicts between man and society, society usually wins.” --The New Yorker Machado de Assis is one of the most enigmatic and fascinating story writers who ever lived. What appear at first to be stately social satires reveal unanticipated depths through flashes of darkness and winking surrealism. This new selection of his finest work, translated by the prize-winning Daniel Hahn, showcases the many facets of his mercurial genius. A brilliant scientist opens the first asylum in his home town, only to start finding signs of insanity all around him. A young lieutenant basks in praise, but in solitude feels his identity fray into nothing. The reading of a much-loved elder statesman's journals reveals hidden thoughts of merciless cruelty. This beautiful new collection of fresh translations offers the perfect gathering of his most beloved stories: The Fortune-Teller The Posthumous Portrait Gallery The Loan The Tale of the Cabriolet The Stick The Secret Cause The Canon, or Metaphysics of Style The Alienist The Looking-Glass Midnight Mass
The young man came to his senses right at the foot of the door. He told the coachman to wait for him, and walked briskly the length of the corridor, climbing the stairs. The light was bleak, the stairsteps were worn out from all the feet that had trod them, the handrail was sticky; but he, in his turn, did not see nor feel anything. He blundered up the stairs and knocked. Once nobody appeared, he considered turning back. It was too late: his blood boiled with curiosity, his temples throbed; he hit the door again with one, two, three knocks. A woman emerged; it was the fortune-teller." Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis was born on June 21, 1839. His father was Brazilian, and his mother, Portuguese. Machado attended a public school. He was a typographer and a proofreader, and in 1869, married Carolina Xavier de Novais. He made a name for himself in the public service, and in 1897 was elected as President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. His works embrace almost all literary genres as he was a journalist, a novel and short-story writer, a poet and a playwright. He died at home in 1908 at the age of 69. Satire, social criticism, family customs, a deep view of the soul of man are some of the elements constituting his works. Machado de Assis is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the world among literary critics.
O Enfermeiro (The Male Nurse) was published by Machado de Assis as a standalone, then joined the author ́s in the Várias Histórias (Several Stories), published in 1896. Procópio accepts the job offer: to take care of an ill colonel, who has an insufferable temper. Their relationship is complicated and dramatic, guiding the characters to a surprising ending.
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839 – 1908) was a writer considered by many critics, scholars, writers, and readers to be the greatest name in Brazilian literature. Machado de Assis left behind a very extensive body of work, the fruit of half a century of literary labor, including plays, poetry, prefaces, critiques, speeches, more than two hundred short stories, and several novels. "Dom Casmurro" is one of the most well-known, translated, and studied works of Machado de Assis, and it certainly attests to the technical prowess of its author and his ability to handle a plot that could be considered tragic with unparalleled irony and detachment. The work, if read only as a bare plot, could be just one of the many "adultery novels" that populate 19th-century literature. However, once transformed into a novel by Machado de Assis, it becomes an exercise in narrative technique that challenges and provokes the reader. In this novel, the reader can witness the talent of this exceptional writer, one of the greatest of all time.
“Is it possible that the most modern, most startlingly avant-garde novel to appear this year was originally published in 1881?”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times Now considered a progenitor of South American fiction, Machado de Assis’s highly experimental novel is finally rendered as a stunningly contemporary work. Narrating from beyond the grave, Brás Cubas—an enigmatic, amusing and frequently insufferable antihero—describes his childhood spent tormenting household slaves, his bachelor years of torrid affairs, and his final days obsessing over nonsensical poultices. “Rejuvenated” (Pradeep Niroula, Chicago Review of Books) by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson’s fresh new translation, Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas is a work of acerbic mockery and deep pathos that offers a bird’s-eye view of how Machado de Assis launched the canon of modernist fiction.“Sprinkled with epigrams, dreams, gags and asides, the story teases, dances and delights.”—Economist
Esau and Jacob is the last of Machado de Assis's four great novels. At one level it is the story of twin brothers in love with the same woman and her inability to choose between them. At another level, it is the story of Brazil itself, caught between the traditional and the modern, and between the monarchical and republican ideals. Instead of a heroic biblical fable, Machado de Assis gives us a story of the petty squabbles, conflicting ambitions, doubts, and insecurities that are part of the human condition.
Be aware that frankness is the prime virtue of a dead man," writes the narrator of The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. But while he may be dead, he is surely one of the liveliest characters in fiction, a product of one of the most remarkable imaginations in all of literature, Brazil's greatest novelist of the nineteenth century, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. By turns flippant and profound, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas is the story of an unheroic man with half-hearted political ambitions, a harebrained idea for curing the world of melancholy, and a thousand quixotic theories unleashed from beyond the grave. It is a novel that has influenced generations of Latin American writers but remains refreshingly and unforgettably unlike anything written before or after it. Newly translated by Gregory Rabassa and superbly edited by Enylton de Sá Rego and Gilberto Pinheiro Passos, this Library of Latin America edition brings to English-speaking readers a literary delight of the highest order.
A classic work of literature by “the greatest author ever produced in Latin America.” (Susan Sontag) Brilliant physician Simão Bacamarte sacrifices a prestigious career to return home and dedicate himself to the budding field of psychology. Bacamarte opens the first asylum in Brazil hoping to crown himself and his hometown with “imperishable laurels.” But the doctor begins to see signs of insanity in more and more of his neighbors. . . . With dark humor and sparse prose, The Alienist lets the reader ponder who is really crazy. *** This is a Hybrid Book. Melville House HybridBooks combine print and digital media into an enhanced reading experience by including with each title additional curated material called Illuminations — maps, photographs, illustrations, and further writing about the author and the book. The Melville House Illuminations are free with the purchase of any title in the HybridBook series, no matter the format. Purchasers of the print version can obtain the Illuminations for a given title simply by scanning the QR code found in the back of each book, or by following the url also given in the back of the print book, then downloading the Illumination in whatever format works best for you. Purchasers of the digital version receive the appropriate Illuminations automatically as part of the ebook edition.
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