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Assis, Joaquim Maria Machado deWe have 1 book for this author.
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, pron. IPA: [ʒoa'kĩ ma'riɐ ma'ʃadu dʒi a'siʃ], often known as Machado de Assis, Machado, or Bruxo do Cosme Velho, (June 21, 1839, Rio de Janeiro—September 29, 1908, Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian novelist, poet and short-story writer. He is widely regarded as the most important writer of Brazilian literature.[1][2][3] However, he has not gained popularity outside his country during his life, something which also happened to the Portuguese writer Eça de Queirós. In both cases, it happened because they wrote in periferical countries, and they also used Portuguese language, which is less spoken than English or Spanish. In addition, Machado's works had a great influence on Brazilian literary schools of the late 19th century and 20th century. José Saramago, Carlos Fuentes, Susan Sontag and Harold Bloom are among his admirers[4] and Bloom calls him "the supreme black literary artist to date."[5] BiographySon of Francisco José de Assis (a mulatto housepainter, descendent of freed slaves) and Maria Leopoldina Machado de Assis (a Portuguese washerwoman), Machado de Assis lost both his mother and his only sister at an early age. Machado is said to have learned to write by himself, and he used to take classes for free will. He learned to speak French first and English later, both fluently. He started to work for newspapers in Rio de Janeiro, where he published his first works and met established writers such as Joaquim Manuel de Macedo. 
 Machado de Assis married Carolina Xavier de Novaes, a Portuguese descendant of a noble family. Soon the writer got a public job and this stability permitted him to write his best works. Machado de Assis began by writing popular novels which sold well, much in the late style of José de Alencar, but are not read much nowadays. His style changed in the 1880s, and it is for the sceptical, ironic, comedic but ultimately pessimistic works he wrote after this that he is remembered: the first novel in his "new style" was Epitaph for a Small Winner, known in the new Gregory Rabassa translation as The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas (a literal translation of the original title, Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas). In their brilliant comedy and ironic playfulness, these resemble in some ways the contemporary works of George Meredith in the United Kingdom, and Eça de Queirós in Portugal, but Machado de Assis' work has a far bleaker emotional undertone. Machado's work has also been compared with Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Machado de Assis could speak English fluently and translated many works of William Shakespeare and other English writers into Portuguese. His work contains numerous allusions to Shakespearean plays, John Milton and influences from Sterne and Meredith. He is also known as a master of the short story, having written classics of the genre in the Portuguese language, such as O Alienista and Missa do Galo. Along with other writers and intellectuals, Machado de Assis founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1896 and was its president from 1897 to 1908, when he died. Machado de Assis 's narrative styleHis narrative style is unique, and several literary critics has been tried to explain it since 1897.[6] Dom CasmurroMachado de Assis was fascinated with the theme of jealousy, and many of his novels are built on this intrigue. One of his most popular ones, Dom Casmurro, is still widely read in Brazilian schools.[7] The volume reflects Machado de Assis' life as a translator of Shakespeare, and also his influence from French realism, especially Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert and Émile Zola. In the novel, he also refers to Much Ado About Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and most importantly, Othello. In fact, Helen Caldwell wrote a book comparing the Shakespearian play to Dom Casmurro "The Brazilian Othello of Machado de Assis - A study of Dom Casmurro". It gives new meaning to this story.[8][9] Although Bento - the main character who got the nickname found in the title - had not killed his wife, as Othello had, both are stories of how jealousy can destroy a happy life in marriage. "Dom Casmurro" is a nickname given to Bento in an unimportant case described in the first chapter of the book. While he travels by train from the city to Engenho Novo, he encounters a young man who reads him some poems. Bento, who was tired that day, falls asleep without hearing what is being read to him. The next day, the ignored poet began calling him "Dom Casmurro". "Dom" because of his noble appearance, used in a derogative way. Casmurro is a now old-fashioned word in Portuguese that means "taciturn". In Dom Casmurro and in other works, Machado "breaks the fourth wall" and talks to the reader. Machado may be one of the earliest writers to use this technique. PoetryMachado de Assis' first published works were poetry, but his output in this genre is not as well considered as his prose.
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This biographical information was gathered from the Joaquim_Maria_Machado_de_Assis page, courtesy of the Wikipedia project. BooksBrazilian Tales |
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