José de Alencar – författare

Jose de Alencar's prose-poem Iracema, first published in 1865, is a classic of Brazilian literature--perhaps the most widely-known piece of fiction within Brazil, and the most widely-read of Alencar's many works. Set in the sixteenth century, it is an extremely romantic portrayal of a doomed love between a Portuguese soldier and an Indian maiden. Iracema reflects the gingerly way that mid-nineteenth cenury Brazil dealt with race mixture and multicultural experience. Precisely because of its nineteenth-century romanticism, Iracema strongly contributed to a Brazilian sense of nationhood - contemporary Brazilian writers and literary critics still cite it as a foundation for their own work.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged . . ." that a single woman in possession of a good character but no fortune must be in want of a wealthy husband-that is, if she is the heroine of a nineteenth-century novel. Senhora, by contrast, turns the tables on this familiar plot. Its strong-willed, independent heroine AurÉlia uses newly inherited wealth to "buy back" and exact revenge on the fiancÉ who had left her for a woman with a more enticing dowry.This exciting Brazilian novel, originally published in 1875 and here translated into English for the first time, raises many questions about traditional gender relationships, the commercial nature of marriage, and the institution of the dowry. While conventional marital roles triumph in the end, the novel still offers realistic insights into the social and economic structure of Rio de Janeiro in the mid-1800s. With its unexpected plot, it also opens important new perspectives on the nineteenth-century Romantic novel.