A stunning novel by one of Brazil's greatest writers. Like other great 19th-century novels, 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--a literary genius of the rarest kind.

Dom Casmurro (Penguin Classics)

Literature & Fiction

ASSIS, MACHADO DE

Literary

Penguin Classics

Bentinho, the narrator, becomes convinced that his wife, Capitu, has betrayed him. Reflecting back on their childhood friendship and adolescent love through the happy years of their marriage, Bentinho draws the reader into sharing his suspicions - as well as his shock and anger.

Penguin??Books

Dom Casmurro

"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 air were 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 is told 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 interrupts his 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 stylistic acrobatics. 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 its obstacles, 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 the worldwide 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, and annotated translation of the novel available. It offers English-speaking readers a literary genius of the rarest kind.

Dom Casmurro (Library of Latin America)

United States

Oxford University Press

"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

Counselor Ayres' Memorial

University of California Press

Set in Rio de Janeiro on the eve of the abolition of slavery in 1888, this tells the poignant story of an elderly diplomat captivated by a beautiful young widow. Imbued with autumnal sadness, it shrewdly and ironically portrays a man coming to terms with the passing of the world he knows, and with his own old age and death. De Assis (1839-1908) displays in his ninth novel the dry wit and measured understanding of human nature that earned him his reputation as Brazil's first major writer."" - Publishers Weekly. ""It is not enough to say that he is an important American novelist; he is one of the masters in either hemisphere."" - NY Times.

The Wager: Aires Journal

Peter Owen Ltd

The later novels of Machado de Assis―notably Dom Casmurro and Esau and Jacob―are well known in this country, but the earlier novels have never been translated. Here, in The Hand and the Glove (the Brazilian master's second novel), rendered in English for the first time by Albert I. Bagby, Jr., readers will find a younger, gentler Assis, writing a romantic comedy that is yet permeated with the lively wit characteristic of his later works. The story is a simple one-of love lost and love found. Of love lost by Estêvão, amiable but vacillating, who is bemused by his own romantic posturing, and by Jorge, superficial and calculating. Of love found by Luis Alves, whose self-possession and determination seem destined to carry him far. The love of all three men is the proud and beautiful Guiomar, sure of her own heart but unsure, until faced by rival claims, of where to bestow it―a foreshadowing of Capitú, the intriguing heroine of Dom Casmurro. "English-speaking readers," says Helen Caldwell in the Foreword, "who are already acquainted with Machado de Assis will welcome this latest addition to the translated novels. True, it is a period piece; but its quaintness is a charm to carry us back to the Rio de Janeiro of the 1850s―to vanished courtly elegance arid attitudes. . . . Now, we too can know what drew [Assis] back to this early tale, for The Hand and the Glove recreates in English the elegant background, the charming heroine, the comedy, and the light-hearted ebullience of the Portuguese original."

The Hand and the Glove (Studies In Romance Languages)

University Press of Kentucky

Iaiá Garcia (Studies In Romance Languages)

A sarcastic criticism of the science of its day, O Alientista tells the story of psychiatrist Simão Bacamarte, who convinces the town of Itaguaí to pay for an assylum, and begins to fill it with residents he believes insane. While the assylum at first has a few patients, it grows quickly until, after a revolt by many in the town is fought off, it includes 4/5ths of the town! Realizing something is wrong, Bacamarte releases those committed saying that those committed are infact normal. Instead, he concludes, the insane are those who are considered normal or exemplary. Then his friends convince him that he is, in fact, exemplary. . .

O Alienista (Classicos Da Literatura Brasileira) (Portuguese Edition)

Contemporary

Luso-Brazilian Books

Memorias Postumas de Bras Cubas (Portuguese Edition)

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Perfect Library) (Portuguese Edition)

Classics

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Books by ASSIS, MACHADO DE

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Dom Casmurro (Penguin Classics)

Dom Casmurro (Penguin Classics)

Dom Casmurro (Library of Latin America)

Counselor Ayres' Memorial

The Wager: Aires Journal

The Hand and the Glove (Studies In Romance Languages)

Iaiá Garcia (Studies In Romance Languages)

O Alienista (Classicos Da Literatura Brasileira) (Portuguese Edition)

Memorias Postumas de Bras Cubas (Portuguese Edition)

Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Perfect Library) (Portuguese Edition)