Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis – författare

J. M. Machado de Assis (1839–1908) har kallats den brasilianska litteraturens fader. Det var inte mycket som talade för att han skulle bli författare. Han kom från ett arbetarhem och han led av epilepsi, och sin bildning fick han skaffa sig på egen hand. Han blev antagen som lärling på ett tryckeri och började sin skrivarbana som poet. Med tiden blev han en uppburen författare och han valdes på livstid till ordförande i den Brasilianska Litteraturakademien. Helena utkom 1876 och tillhör författarens tidigare verk där den romantiska stilen är påtaglig. Den har alltid utövat stor tjuskraft på läsarna i Brasilien där den är en levande klassiker och fortfarande kommer ut i stora upplagor. Intrigen är sinnrikt uppbyggd och slutet är överraskande. ”Boken är trots att det gått mer än 100 år sedan den kom ut lättläst, och den känns fortfarande aktuell. Dygd och moral, sanning och oärlighet gestaltas i olika spörsmål som personerna, genom ödets nyck eller försynen (?) ’drabbas’ av. ... En utmärkt latinamerikansk klassiker.” – Monica Morén, BTJ:s sambindningslista

"A palm tree, seeing me troubled and divining the cause, murmured in its branches that there was nothing wrong with fifteen-year old boys getting into corners with girls of fourteen; quite the contrary, youths of that age have no other function, and corners were made for that very purpose. It was an old palm-tree, and I believed in old palm-trees even more than in old books. Birds, butterflies, a cricket trying out its summer song, all the living things of the airwere of the same opinion." So begins this extraordinary love story between Bento and Capitu, childhood sweethearts who grow up next door to each other in Rio de Janeiro in the 1850s. Like other great nineteenth century novels--The Scarlet Letter, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary--Machado de Assis's Dom Casmurro explores the themes of marriage and adultery. But what distinguishes Machado's novel from the realism of its contemporaries, and what makes it such a delightful discovery for English-speaking readers, is its eccentric and wildly unpredictable narrative style. Far from creating the illusion of an orderly fictional "reality," Dom Casmurro istold by a narrator who is disruptively self-conscious, deeply subjective, and prone to all manner of marvelous digression. As he recounts the events of his life from the vantage of a lonely old age, Bento continually interruptshis story to reflect on the writing of it: he examines the aptness of an image or analogy, considers cutting out certain scenes before taking the manuscript to the printer, and engages in a running, and often hilarious, dialogue with the reader. "If all this seems a little emphatic, irritating reader," he says, "it's because you have never combed a girl's hair, you've never put your adolescent hands on the young head of a nymph..." But the novel is more than a performance of stylisticacrobatics. It is an ironic critique of Catholicism, in which God appears as a kind of divine accountant whose ledgers may be balanced in devious as well as pious ways. It is also a story about love and itsobstacles, about deception and self-deception, and about the failure of memory to make life's beginning fit neatly into its end. First published in 1900, Dom Casmurro is one of the great unrecognized classics of the turn of the century by one of Brazil's greatest writers. The popularity of Machado de Assis in Latin America has never been in doubt and now, with the acclaim of such critics and writers as Susan Sontag, John Barth, and Tony Tanner, his work is finally receiving theworldwide attention it deserves. Newly translated and edited by John Gledson, with an afterword by Joao Adolfo Hansen, this Library of Latin America edition is the only complete, unabridged, andannotated translation of the novel available. It offers English-speaking readers a literary genius of the rarest kind.

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.

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.

The modem Brazilian short story begins with the mature work of Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), acclaimed almost unanimously as Brazil's greatest writer. Collectively, these nineteen stories are representative of Machado's unique style and world view, and this translation doubles the number of his stories previously available in English.The stories in this volume reflect Machado's post-1880 emphasis on social satire and experimentation in psychological realism. If he had continued to produce the moralistic love stories and parlor intrigues of his earlier fiction, Machado's legacy would have been an entertaining but inconsequent body of work. However, by 1880 he had begun a devastating satirical assault on society through his fiction. In spite of his ruthlessness, Machado does at times reveal an ironic sympathy for his characters. He is not indifferent to human conflict but uses humor and irony to stress the absurdity of these conflicts, acted out against the backdrop of an indifferent universe. Such a spectacle creates a sense of helplessness that can only inspire wistful amusement.In his technical mastery of the short story. Machado was decades ahead of his contemporaries and can still be considered more modern than most of the modernists themselves. That his stories elicit such strong and diverse reactions today is a tribute to their richness, complexity, and significance.

"A small masterwork, freshly translated , by one of the great novelists of the 19th century. A retired Brazilian diplomat (Ayres) recounts the love affair of a young widow who would rather be faithful to her dead Romeo. How she rejoins the world of the living, rekindling Ayres' spirit as well, is told with muted allusions to Brazil's plantation life and its emancipation of the slaves."--Chicago Tribune "This novel first appeared in 1908 , the year of Machado de Assi s' death . . It is a mild story, mildly told with a muted form of irony . . it is without self-pity, an elegiac book ...unmistakably the work of a masterful writer."--Kirkus Reviews "Packed with wit, with compassion, with valiant self-knowledge. It is an experience I urge you to undertake."--Cleveland Plain Dealer "A novel as ironic as any of Machado's earlier fiction, but with a new sense of ripeness and tender regard for those whom life tries and tests. It is a last fitting monument to the art of Machado de Assis."--Nation

A progenitor of twentieth-century Latin American fiction, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), was hailed in his lifetime as Brazil’s greatest writer. This majestic translation combines all his short-story collections appearing in his lifetime and reintroduces de Assis as a literary giant who must be integrated into the world literary canon.

"I passed away at two o’clock in the afternoon on a Friday in August in 1869, in my beautiful mansion in the Catumbi district of the city." So begins Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas—at the end of the narrator’s life. Published in 1881, this highly experimental novel was not at first considered Machado de Assis’ definitive work—a fact his narrator anticipated, bidding "good riddance" to the critic looking for a "run-of-the-mill-novel". Yet in this coruscating new translation, Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson reveal a pivotal moment in Machado’s career, as his flights of the surreal became his literary hallmark. An enigmatic, amusing and frequently insufferable anti hero, Brás Cubas describes his Rio de Janeiro childhood spent tormenting household slaves, his bachelor years of torrid affairs and his final days obsessing over nonsensical poultices. A novel that helped launch modernist fiction, Brás Cubas shines a direct light to Ulysses and Love in the Time of Cholera.

Hailed in his lifetime as Brazil’s greatest writer, Machado de Assis has found a new generation of readers through a series of critically acclaimed translations by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson. Now, the duo returns to breathe new life into the irreverent, ambitious and darkly funny Quincas Borba. Originally published in 1891, the novel begins with the death of its titular character, a mad philosopher infamous for spouting pessimistic theories of Humanitism. Borba leaves his fortune—including his dog, also named Quincas Borba—to Rubião, his loyal caretaker. Adrift in the big, bad, bustling world of late-1860s Rio de Janeiro, it isn’t long before Rubião is targeted by the city’s sycophants, who can smell his naïveté from a mile away. Playfully told by an omniscient—and possibly unreliable—narrator, and rife with Machado’s signature satirical jabs, Quincas Borba is another strikingly modern tale from a blazing progenitor of twentieth-century fiction.

Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson’s critically acclaimed translations of Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas and The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis introduced a new generation of readers to one of Brazil’s most ground-breaking authors. Hailed as “the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America” (Susan Sontag), Machado’s genius is on full display in this fresh translation of the 1899 classic Dom Casmurro. In his supposed memoir, Bento Santiago, an engaging yet unreliable narrator, suspects his wife, Capitu, of having an affair with his closest friend. Withdrawn and obsessive, our antihero mines the origins of their love story: from childhood neighbours playing innocently in the backyard to his brief spell in a seminary to marriage and the birth of their child—whom, he fears, does not resemble him. A gripping domestic drama brimming with Machado’s signature humour, this is another stunningly modern tale from the progenitor of twentieth-century fiction.

Originally published in 1899, Dom Casmurro is widely considered to be Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis’s masterpiece and a progenitor of twentieth-century Latin American fiction. This exuberant new translation captures all the hilarious, maddening and utterly compelling idiosyncrasies of one of Machado’s most complex characters. Bento Santiago, our charismatic yet exceedingly unreliable narrator, nicknamed by his enemies Dom Casmurro, has become a bit of a recluse in old age. He spends his days reading and mourning the past in a house built as a replica of his childhood home. One day, musing over the painted busts of Nero, Augustus, Masinissa and Caesar, he is inspired to write his own story, a tale of equally epic proportions. Or so, at least, he thinks.“Yes, let us begin by evoking a famous November afternoon, one I will never forget,” he writes, recalling the day he fell in love with his childhood sweetheart, Capitu. Thus he transports readers back to his youth in a once fashionable neighbourhood, when he and Capitu were neighbours playing innocently in the backyard. But after overcoming many obstacles, Bento’s happy-ever-after ending proves short-lived when he is consumed by paranoia and jealousy.At once oblivious and obsessive, Bento becomes a strangely engaging antihero as he mines the repercussions of his suspicions against the backdrop of a rapidly modernising Rio de Janeiro. Eloquently translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson—the same duo that sparked a Machado renaissance with their brilliant translations of The Collected Stories and Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas—and brimming with his signature charm, Dom Casmurro is a subversive and ground-breaking dark comedy from one of Brazil’s greatest authors.

Hailed in his lifetime as Brazil’s greatest writer, Machado de Assis (1839–1908) has found a new generation of readers. Originally published in 1891, Quincas Borba begins with the death of its titular character, a mad philosopher. Borba leaves his fortune—including his dog, also named Quincas Borba—to Rubião, his loyal caretaker. Adrift in the big, bad world, it isn’t long before Rubião is targeted by sycophants, smelling his naïveté. Playfully told by an omniscient and possibly unreliable narrator, the novel is at once irreverent and ambitious, brimming with barbed wit and keen philosophical inquiry. Brilliantly translated by the duo credited with introducing a new generation of readers to Machado through their translations of Dom Casmurro, The Collected Stories and Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas—Quincas Borba is another strikingly modern tale from a blazing progenitor of twentieth-century fiction.

Released two months before his death in 1908, Memorial de Ayres was Machado de Assis’s final novel. Written in the form of a diary, it follows the day-to-day happenings of a retired diplomat, Counselor Ayres, during the waning years of the Brazilian empire. Ayres lives a simple life: the most eventful parts of his week are lunch with his sister or a visit to their family cemetery. But a new love interest pushes Ayres from the confines of his quiet routine and into the warm, welcoming home of the Aguiars, an older couple who never had children. The Aguiar household is a centre of merriment, a necessary outlet for the reclusive Ayres–and where Brazil’s well-to-do ponder the momentous changes afoot. Marked by Machado’s sly humour and psychological subtlety–and set in a singularly transformative moment in Brazil’s history–Memorial de Ayres is a quietly prescient tale of personal and national legacy.

Featuring ten stories never before translated, dating from 1878 to 1886 (regarded as Joaquim Machado de Assis’s most radically experimental period), this selection of short fiction by Brazil’s greatest author ranges in tone from elegiac and philosophical to impishly ironic. Including the author’s classic essay on world literature–also appearing in English for the first time–and with pieces chosen from his vast body of work for their playfulness, pathos, and stylistic subversion, this collection is an ideal introduction to one of world literature’s greatest talents.“A prodigy of accomplishment…deserving of a permanent place in world literature” – Susan Sontag“Everything about Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis seems double. There’s before and after, domestic and metaphysical, high and low, black and white, erotic and austere, short and long, trapped and free, gentle and cruel, perceived and real. The 200 or so stories he wrote spin out these oppositions into a remarkable variousness.”–Peter Robb, Times Literary Supplement“There is in Machado’s prose a playfulness that teases the reader, humor that mocks solemnity and seriousness. He punctures pretentiousness and ridicules received ideas (…) The range of allusions in his work would have amazed even Nabokov. And as with Nabokov, indeed as with any work of art which gives us what Nabokov calls the shiver between the shoulder blades, what elicits one’s astonished admiration is not to do with subject matter…but with that abstract and elusive concept…which manifests itself in that purely aesthetic thing called style.” – Zulfikar Ghose, Context No. 12

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.

"I passed away at two o’clock in the afternoon on a Friday in August in 1869, in my beautiful mansion in the Catumbi district of the city." So begins Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas—at the end of the narrator’s life. Published in 1881, this highly experimental novel was not at first considered Machado de Assis’ definitive work—a fact his narrator anticipated, bidding "good riddance" to the critic looking for a "run-of-the-mill-novel". Yet in this coruscating new translation, Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson reveal a pivotal moment in Machado’s career, as his flights of the surreal became his literary hallmark. An enigmatic, amusing and frequently insufferable anti hero, Brás Cubas describes his Rio de Janeiro childhood spent tormenting household slaves, his bachelor years of torrid affairs and his final days obsessing over nonsensical poultices. A novel that helped launch modernist fiction, Brás Cubas shines a direct light to Ulysses and Love in the Time of Cholera.

Acclaimed as “the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America” by Susan Sontag, as well as “another Kafka” by Allen Ginsberg, Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was famous in his time for his psychologically probing tales of fin-de-siecle Rio de Janeiro. Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson, “the accomplished duo” (The Wall Street Journal) behind the “landmark...heroically translated” volume (The New Yorker) of The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis (ISBN 978 0 87140 496 1), include twenty-six chronologically ordered stories, Machado de Assis affirms Machado’s status as a literary giant who must finally be fully integrated into the world literary canon.

Brás Cubas postuma memoarer har formen av en självbiografi. Det är en krönika över den döde berättarens erotiska misslyckanden. Machados litterära grepp är effektivt – eftersom den fiktive författaren är död kan han uttrycka sig öppenhjärtigt. På sin jakt efter kärlek och avkomma avvisar Brás Cubas de kvinnor som vill ha honom och eftertraktar de ouppnåeliga. Till slut dör han oälskad och utan arvingar, men lyckas ändå summera sitt liv som ett slags seger. Vad som gör denna över 100 år gamla bok så läsvärd är Machados humor, lysande prosa och djupa förståelse för alla mänskliga svag heter. Brás Cubas postumt skrivna memoarer får vi följa hans liv från vaggan till graven. Vi översköljs av en rikedom av episoder som utspelas i Brasilien i en miljö där den europeiska livsstilen är förhärskande bland de besuttna och där slaveriet fortfarande finns kvar. Mot denna bakgrund framträder vivören Brás Cubas med alla sina fel och brister som han från sin oberörda position kan kosta på sig att lämna ut helt oförblommerat. När han berättar sitt livs historia dör förhållandet till en gift kvinna spelar en stor roll avslöjar han ideligen sin snålhet, falskhet och äregirighet. Dent märkliga med denna bok är att den inger läsaren en oroande misstanke om att Brás Cubas inte är ensam om att vara behäftad med dessa svagheter och att man rentav stundtals kan tycka att boken är en spegel som man håller i sin hand. Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) var en man som hade sett samhället ur många perspektiv, som föräldralös pojke, som typograflärling och journalist och slutligen som uppburen författare och medlem av Brasilianska Akademien. Hans författarskap kom så småningom att präglas av skepticism och pessimism som dock mildras av en varm humor.