Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Encyclopedia
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (ʒoaˈkĩ maˈɾiɐ maˈʃadu dʒi aˈsis), often known as Machado de Assis, Machado, or Bruxo do Cosme Velho
(June 21, 1839—September 29, 1908), was a Brazil
ian novelist, poet
, playwright
and short story
writer
. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature
, but he did not gain widespread popularity outside Brazil in his own lifetime. He was multilingual, having learned French, English, German, and Greek later in life.
Machado's works had a great influence on Brazilian literary schools of the late 19th century and early 20th century. José Saramago
, Carlos Fuentes
, Woody Allen
and Susan Sontag
are among his admirers, the American critic Harold Bloom
calls him "the supreme black literary artist to date.", although Machado de Assis would hardly call himself "black"
.
wall painter, and Maria Leopoldina da Câmara Machado, an Azorean Portuguese washerwoman. He was born in Livramento country house, owned by Dona Maria José de Mendonça Barro Pereira, widow of senator Bento Barroso Pereira, who protected his parents and allowed them to live with her. Dona Maria José became Joaquim’s godmother and her brother-in-law, commendatory Joaquim Alberto de Sousa da Silveira, the godfather, and both were paid homage by giving their names to the baby. Machado had a sister who died young. Joaquim studied in a public school, but was not a good student. While helping celebrate masses, he met Father Silveira Sarmento, who became his Latin teacher and also friend.
When Joaquim was ten years old, his mother died, and his father took him along as he moved to São Cristóvão. Francisco de Assis met the mulatto
Maria Inês da Silva, and they married in 1854. Joaquim had classes in a school for girls only, thanks to his stepmother who worked there making candies. At night he learned French with an immigrant baker. In his adolescence, he met the mulatto Francisco de Paula Brito, who owned a bookstore, a newspaper and typography. In 12 January 1855, Francisco de Paula published the poem Ella (“She”) written by Joaquim, then 15 years old, in the newspaper Marmota Fluminense. In the following year, he was hired as typographer’s apprentice in the Imprensa Oficial (the Official Press, charged with the publication of Government measures), where he was encouraged as a writer by Manuel Antônio de Almeida
, the newspaper’s director and also a novelist. There he also met Francisco Otaviano
, journalist and later liberal senator, and Quintino Bocaiúva
, who decades later would become known for his role as a republican orator.
Around this time, he became a friend of the writer and liberal politician José de Alencar
, who taught him English
. From English literature
, he was influenced by Laurence Sterne
, William Shakespeare
, Lord Byron
and Jonathan Swift
. He learned German
years later and in his old age, Greek
. He was invited by Bocaiúva to work at his newspaper Diário do Rio de Janeiro in 1860. Machado had a passion for theater and wrote several plays for a short time; his friend Bocaiúva concluded: “Your works are meant to be read and not played.” He gained some notability and began to sign his writings as J. M. Machado de Assis, the way he would be known for posterity: Machado de Assis.
His father Francisco de Assis died in 1864. Machado learned of his father's death through acquaintances . He dedicated his compilation of poems called “Crisálidas” to his father: “To the Memory of Francisco José de Assis and Maria Leopoldina Machado de Assis, my Parents.” With the Liberal Party's ascension to power about that time, Machado thought he might receive a patronage position that would help him improve his life. To his surprise, aid came from the Emperor Dom Pedro II
, who hired him as director-assistant in the Diário Oficial in 1867, and knighted him as an honor. In 1888 Machado was made an officer of the Order of the Rose
.
Machado managed to rise in his bureaucratic career, first in the Agriculture Department. Three years later, he became the head of a section in it. He published two poetry books: Falenas, in 1870, and Americanas, in 1875. Their weak reception made him explore other literary genres.
He wrote several romantic
novels, such as: Ressurreição
, A Mão e Luva, Helena
and Iaiá Garcia. The books were a success with the public, but literary critics considered them mediocre. Machado suffered repeated attacks of epilepsy
, apparently related to hearing of the death of his old friend José de Alencar. He was left melancholic, pessimistic and fixed on death. His next book, marked by “a skeptical and realistic
tone”: Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, also translated as Epitaph for a Small Winner), is widely considered a masterpiece. By the end of the 1880s, Machado had gained wide renown as a writer.
Although he was opposed to slavery, he never spoke against it in public. He avoided discussing politics. He was criticized by the abolitionist José do Patrocínio
and by the writer Lima Barreto
for staying away from politics, especially the cause of abolition. He was also criticized by them for having married a white woman. Machado was caught by surprise with the monarchy overthrown on November 15, 1889. Machado had no sympathy towards republicanism
, as he considered himself a liberal monarchist
and venerated Pedro II, whom he perceived as “a humble, honest, well-learned and patriotic man, who knew how to make of a throne a chair [for his simplicity], without diminishing its greatness and respect.” When a commission went to the public office where he worked to remove the picture of the former emperor, the shy Machado defied them: “The picture got in here by an order and it shall leave only by another order.”
The birth of the Brazilian republic made Machado become more critical and an observer of the Brazilian society of his time. From then on, he wrote “not only the greatest novels of his time, but the greatest of all time of Brazilian literature.” Works such as Quincas Borba
(Philosopher or Dog?) (1891), Dom Casmurro
(1899), Esaú e Jacó (1904) and Memorial de Aires (1908), considered masterpieces, were successes with both critics and the public. In 1893 he published "A Missa do Galo" ("Midnight Mass"), considered his greatest short story.
, Manuel de Oliveira Lima, Afonso Celso de Assis and Alfredo d'Escragnolle Taunay
, and other writers and intellectuals, founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was its first president from 1897 to 1908, when he died. For many years, he requested that the government grant a proper headquarters to the Academy, which he managed to obtain in 1905. In 1902 he was transferred to the accountancy’s directing board of the Ministry of Industry.
His wife Carolina Novais died on October 20, 1904, after thirty-five years of a “perfect married life”. Feeling depressed and lonely, Machado did not survive her for much longer, and died at 3:20 am on September 29, 1908.
, another Brazilian writer.
Machado de Assis was included on American literary critic Harold Bloom
's list of the greatest 100 geniuses of literature, alongside writers such as Dante
, Shakespeare and Cervantes
. Bloom considers him the greatest black
writer in Western literature, but his classification of him as black is based on United States's conceptions of race. These are not the same in Brazil
.
His works have been studied by critics in various countries of the world, such as Giuseppe Alpi (Italy
), Lourdes Andreassi (Portugal
), Albert Bagby Jr. (US), Abel Barros Baptista (Portugal), Hennio Morgan Birchal (Brazil), Edoardo Bizzarri (Italy), Jean-Michel Massa (France
), Helen Caldwell
(US), John Gledson (England
), Adrien Delpech (France), Albert Dessau (Germany
), Paul B. Dixon (US), Keith Ellis (US), Edith Fowke
(Canada
), Anatole France
(France), Richard Graham (US), Pierre Hourcade (France), David Jackson (US), Linda Murphy Kelley (US), John C. Kinnear, Alfred Mac Adam (US), Victor Orban (France), Daphne Patai
(US), Houwens Post (Italy), Samuel Putnam
(US), John Hyde Schmitt, Tony Tanner (England), Jack E. Tomlins (US), Carmelo Virgillo (US), Dieter Woll (Germany) and Susan Sontag
(US).
Critics are divided as to the nature of Machado de Assis's writing. Some, such as Abel Barros Baptista, classify Machado as a staunch anti-realist, and argue that his writing attacks Realism, aiming to negate the possibility of representation or the existence of a meaningful objective reality. Realist critics such as John Gledson are more likely to regard Machado's work as a faithful description of Brazilian reality—but one executed with daring innovative technique. Historians such as Sydney Chalhoub argue that Machado's prose constitutes an exposé of the social, political and economic dysfunction of Second Empire Brazil. Critics agree on how he used innovative techniques to reveal the contradictions of his society. Roberto Schwarz points out that Machado's innovations in prose narrative are used to expose the hypocrisies, contradictions, and dysfunction of nineteenth-century Brazil. Schwartz, a Marxist, argues that Machado inverts many narrative and intellectual conventions to reveal the pernicious ends to which they are used. Thus we see critics reinterpet Machado according to their own designs or their perception of how best to validate him for their own historical moment. Regardless, his incisive prose shines through, able to communicate with readers from different times and places, conveying his ironic and yet tender sense of what we, as human beings, are.
Machado's literary style has inspired many Brazilian writers. His works have been adapted to television, theater and cinema. In 1975 the Comissão Machado de Assis ("Machado de Assis Commission"), organized by the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Culture, organized and published critical editions of Machado's works, in 15 volumes. His main works have been translated into many languages. Great 20th century writers such as Salman Rushdie, Cabrera Infante and Carlos Fuentes
, as well as the American film director Woody Allen
, have proclaimed their enthusiasm for his fiction. Despite the efforts and patronage of such well-known intellectuals as Susan Sontag
, Harold Bloom
, and Elizabeth Hardwick
, Machado's books—the most famous of which are available in English in multiple translations—have never achieved large sales in the English-speaking world and he continues to be relatively unknown, even in comparison with other Latin American writers.
In his works, Machado appeals directly to the reader, breaking the so-called fourth wall
.
Cosme Velho
Cosme Velho is a traditional neighborhood in the Southern Zone of Rio de Janeiro, adjacent to Laranjeiras. Its main street is Rua Cosme Velho . It is a small neighborhood, but with much to interest tourists....
(June 21, 1839—September 29, 1908), was a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian novelist, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature
Brazilian literature
Brazilian literature is written in the Portuguese language by Brazilians or in Brazil, even if prior to Brazil's independence from Portugal, in 1822...
, but he did not gain widespread popularity outside Brazil in his own lifetime. He was multilingual, having learned French, English, German, and Greek later in life.
Machado's works had a great influence on Brazilian literary schools of the late 19th century and early 20th century. José Saramago
José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE was a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Harold Bloom has described Saramago as "a...
, Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
, Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
and Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
are among his admirers, the American critic Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
calls him "the supreme black literary artist to date.", although Machado de Assis would hardly call himself "black"
Race and ethnicity in Brazil
Studies of race in Brazil are often brought up as examples showing that the concept of "race" is a social construct, and that what is understood as "race" in one society is not the same that is understood as such in another....
.
Birth and adolescence
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis was born on 21 June 1839 in Rio de Janeiro, then capital of the Empire of Brazil. His parents were Francisco José de Assis, a mulattoMulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
wall painter, and Maria Leopoldina da Câmara Machado, an Azorean Portuguese washerwoman. He was born in Livramento country house, owned by Dona Maria José de Mendonça Barro Pereira, widow of senator Bento Barroso Pereira, who protected his parents and allowed them to live with her. Dona Maria José became Joaquim’s godmother and her brother-in-law, commendatory Joaquim Alberto de Sousa da Silveira, the godfather, and both were paid homage by giving their names to the baby. Machado had a sister who died young. Joaquim studied in a public school, but was not a good student. While helping celebrate masses, he met Father Silveira Sarmento, who became his Latin teacher and also friend.
When Joaquim was ten years old, his mother died, and his father took him along as he moved to São Cristóvão. Francisco de Assis met the mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
Maria Inês da Silva, and they married in 1854. Joaquim had classes in a school for girls only, thanks to his stepmother who worked there making candies. At night he learned French with an immigrant baker. In his adolescence, he met the mulatto Francisco de Paula Brito, who owned a bookstore, a newspaper and typography. In 12 January 1855, Francisco de Paula published the poem Ella (“She”) written by Joaquim, then 15 years old, in the newspaper Marmota Fluminense. In the following year, he was hired as typographer’s apprentice in the Imprensa Oficial (the Official Press, charged with the publication of Government measures), where he was encouraged as a writer by Manuel Antônio de Almeida
Manuel Antônio de Almeida
Manuel Antônio de Almeida was a Brazilian writer, medician and teacher. He is famous for the book Memoirs of a Police Sergeant, written under the pen name Um Brasileiro...
, the newspaper’s director and also a novelist. There he also met Francisco Otaviano
Francisco Otaviano
Francisco Otaviano de Almeida Rosa was a Brazilian poet, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. He is famous for translating into Portuguese works by famous writers such as Horace, Catullus, Lord Byron, William Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Victor Hugo and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,...
, journalist and later liberal senator, and Quintino Bocaiúva
Quintino Bocaiúva
Quintino Bocaiúva was a politician and writer from Brazil.-References:...
, who decades later would become known for his role as a republican orator.
Early career and education
Francisco Otaviano hired Machado to work on the newspaper Correio Mercantil as a proofreader in 1858. He continued to write for the Marmota Fluminense and also for several other newspapers, but he did not earn much and had a humble life. As he did not live with his father anymore, it was common for him to eat only once a day for lack of money.Around this time, he became a friend of the writer and liberal politician José de Alencar
José de Alencar
José Martiniano de Alencar was a Brazilian lawyer, politician, orator, novelist and dramatist. He is one of the most famous writers of the first generation of Brazilian Romanticism, writing historical, regionalist and Indianist romances — being the most famous The Guarani...
, who taught him English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. From English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
, he was influenced by Laurence Sterne
Laurence Sterne
Laurence Sterne was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics...
, William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement...
and Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
. He learned German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
years later and in his old age, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. He was invited by Bocaiúva to work at his newspaper Diário do Rio de Janeiro in 1860. Machado had a passion for theater and wrote several plays for a short time; his friend Bocaiúva concluded: “Your works are meant to be read and not played.” He gained some notability and began to sign his writings as J. M. Machado de Assis, the way he would be known for posterity: Machado de Assis.
His father Francisco de Assis died in 1864. Machado learned of his father's death through acquaintances . He dedicated his compilation of poems called “Crisálidas” to his father: “To the Memory of Francisco José de Assis and Maria Leopoldina Machado de Assis, my Parents.” With the Liberal Party's ascension to power about that time, Machado thought he might receive a patronage position that would help him improve his life. To his surprise, aid came from the Emperor Dom Pedro II
Pedro II of Brazil
Dom Pedro II , nicknamed "the Magnanimous", was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of...
, who hired him as director-assistant in the Diário Oficial in 1867, and knighted him as an honor. In 1888 Machado was made an officer of the Order of the Rose
Order of the Rose
The Imperial Order of the Rose is an Brazilian order of chivalry, instituted by Emperor Pedro I of Brazil on 17 October 1829 to commemorate his marriage to Amélie of Leuchtenberg....
.
Marriage and family
In 1868 Machado met the Portuguese Carolina Augusta Xavier de Novais, five years older than he. She was the sister of his colleague Faustino Xavier de Novais, for whom he worked on the magazine O Futuro. Afflicted with a stammer, Machado was extremely shy, short and lean, but he was very intelligent and well learned. He married Carolina on 12 November 1869; although her parents Miguel and Adelaide, and her siblings disapproved because Machado was mulatto and she was of purely European ancestry. They had no children.Literature
He wrote several romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
novels, such as: Ressurreição
Ressurreição
Ressurreição is a novel written by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. It was first published in 1872. The author explained in this book that his idea when he wrote the book was put on action this thinking of Shakespeare:...
, A Mão e Luva, Helena
Helena (novel)
Helena is a novel written by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. It was first published in 1876.-Plot summary:The novel opens with the family of Éstacio, whose father, Conselheiro Vale, has just died. In his will, the Conselheiro has recognized a natural daughter, previously unknown to both...
and Iaiá Garcia. The books were a success with the public, but literary critics considered them mediocre. Machado suffered repeated attacks of epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
, apparently related to hearing of the death of his old friend José de Alencar. He was left melancholic, pessimistic and fixed on death. His next book, marked by “a skeptical and realistic
Literary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
tone”: Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, also translated as Epitaph for a Small Winner), is widely considered a masterpiece. By the end of the 1880s, Machado had gained wide renown as a writer.
Although he was opposed to slavery, he never spoke against it in public. He avoided discussing politics. He was criticized by the abolitionist José do Patrocínio
José do Patrocínio
José Carlos do Patrocínio was a Brazilian writer, journalist, activist, orator and pharmacist. He founded and occupied the 21st chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1897 until his death in 1905.-Life:...
and by the writer Lima Barreto
Lima Barreto
Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto was a Brazilian novelist and journalist. A major figure on the Brazilian Pre-Modernism, he is famous for the novel Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, a bitter satire of the first years of the República Velha in Brazil.-Life:Lima Barreto was born in Rio de Janeiro in...
for staying away from politics, especially the cause of abolition. He was also criticized by them for having married a white woman. Machado was caught by surprise with the monarchy overthrown on November 15, 1889. Machado had no sympathy towards republicanism
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
, as he considered himself a liberal monarchist
Monarchism
Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch.In this system, the Monarch may be the...
and venerated Pedro II, whom he perceived as “a humble, honest, well-learned and patriotic man, who knew how to make of a throne a chair [for his simplicity], without diminishing its greatness and respect.” When a commission went to the public office where he worked to remove the picture of the former emperor, the shy Machado defied them: “The picture got in here by an order and it shall leave only by another order.”
The birth of the Brazilian republic made Machado become more critical and an observer of the Brazilian society of his time. From then on, he wrote “not only the greatest novels of his time, but the greatest of all time of Brazilian literature.” Works such as Quincas Borba
Quincas Borba
Quincas Borba is a novel written by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. It was first published in 1891. It is also known in English as Philosopher or Dog?-External links:* '** ** ** ** ...
(Philosopher or Dog?) (1891), Dom Casmurro
Dom Casmurro
Dom Casmurro, written by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, was first published in Brazil in 1899. Like The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas and Quincas Borba, both by Machado de Assis, it is a masterpiece of realist literature. It is written as a fictional memoir by a distrusting, jealous husband...
(1899), Esaú e Jacó (1904) and Memorial de Aires (1908), considered masterpieces, were successes with both critics and the public. In 1893 he published "A Missa do Galo" ("Midnight Mass"), considered his greatest short story.
Later years
Machado de Assis, along with fellow monarchists such as Joaquim NabucoJoaquim Nabuco
Joaquim Aurélio Barreto Nabuco de Araújo was a Brazilian writer, statesman, and a leading voice in the abolitionist movement of his country.-Biography:...
, Manuel de Oliveira Lima, Afonso Celso de Assis and Alfredo d'Escragnolle Taunay
Alfredo D'Escragnolle Taunay
Alfredo Maria Adriano d'Escragnolle Taunay, Viscount of Taunay was a Brazilian writer, musician, professor, military engineer, historian, politician, sociologist and nobleman...
, and other writers and intellectuals, founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was its first president from 1897 to 1908, when he died. For many years, he requested that the government grant a proper headquarters to the Academy, which he managed to obtain in 1905. In 1902 he was transferred to the accountancy’s directing board of the Ministry of Industry.
His wife Carolina Novais died on October 20, 1904, after thirty-five years of a “perfect married life”. Feeling depressed and lonely, Machado did not survive her for much longer, and died at 3:20 am on September 29, 1908.
Narrative style
Machado's style is unique, and several literary critics have tried to describe it since 1897. He is considered by many the greatest Brazilian writer of all times, and one of the world's greatest novelists and short story writers. His chronicles do not share the same status. His poems are often misunderstood for the use of crude terms, sometimes associated to the style of Augusto dos AnjosAugusto dos Anjos
Augusto de Carvalho Rodrigues dos Anjos was a Brazilian poet and professor. His poems speak mostly of sickness and death, and are considered to forerun the Modernism in Brazil....
, another Brazilian writer.
Machado de Assis was included on American literary critic Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
's list of the greatest 100 geniuses of literature, alongside writers such as Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
, Shakespeare and Cervantes
Cervantes
-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...
. Bloom considers him the greatest black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
writer in Western literature, but his classification of him as black is based on United States's conceptions of race. These are not the same in Brazil
Race and ethnicity in Brazil
Studies of race in Brazil are often brought up as examples showing that the concept of "race" is a social construct, and that what is understood as "race" in one society is not the same that is understood as such in another....
.
His works have been studied by critics in various countries of the world, such as Giuseppe Alpi (Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
), Lourdes Andreassi (Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
), Albert Bagby Jr. (US), Abel Barros Baptista (Portugal), Hennio Morgan Birchal (Brazil), Edoardo Bizzarri (Italy), Jean-Michel Massa (France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
), Helen Caldwell
Helen Caldwell
Helen Caldwell is a scholar and Brazilianist from California. Her work focuses on the 19th century Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. She completed the first English translation of Dom Casmurro, published in 1953. Her most famous work is Machado de Assis: The Brazilian Master and His Novels...
(US), John Gledson (England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
), Adrien Delpech (France), Albert Dessau (Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
), Paul B. Dixon (US), Keith Ellis (US), Edith Fowke
Edith Fowke
Edith Fowke, was a Canadian folklorist. Born on April 30, 1913, in Lumsden, Saskatchewan, she was educated at the University of Saskatchewan. She hosted the CBC Radio program Folk Song Time from 1950 to 1963...
(Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
), Anatole France
Anatole France
Anatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...
(France), Richard Graham (US), Pierre Hourcade (France), David Jackson (US), Linda Murphy Kelley (US), John C. Kinnear, Alfred Mac Adam (US), Victor Orban (France), Daphne Patai
Daphne Patai
Daphne Patai is a feminist scholar and author. She is a professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her PhD is in Brazilian literature, but her early work also focused on utopian and dystopian fiction...
(US), Houwens Post (Italy), Samuel Putnam
Samuel Putnam
Samuel Putnam was an American translator and scholar of Romance languages.His most famous work is his 1949 English translation of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote...
(US), John Hyde Schmitt, Tony Tanner (England), Jack E. Tomlins (US), Carmelo Virgillo (US), Dieter Woll (Germany) and Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
(US).
Critics are divided as to the nature of Machado de Assis's writing. Some, such as Abel Barros Baptista, classify Machado as a staunch anti-realist, and argue that his writing attacks Realism, aiming to negate the possibility of representation or the existence of a meaningful objective reality. Realist critics such as John Gledson are more likely to regard Machado's work as a faithful description of Brazilian reality—but one executed with daring innovative technique. Historians such as Sydney Chalhoub argue that Machado's prose constitutes an exposé of the social, political and economic dysfunction of Second Empire Brazil. Critics agree on how he used innovative techniques to reveal the contradictions of his society. Roberto Schwarz points out that Machado's innovations in prose narrative are used to expose the hypocrisies, contradictions, and dysfunction of nineteenth-century Brazil. Schwartz, a Marxist, argues that Machado inverts many narrative and intellectual conventions to reveal the pernicious ends to which they are used. Thus we see critics reinterpet Machado according to their own designs or their perception of how best to validate him for their own historical moment. Regardless, his incisive prose shines through, able to communicate with readers from different times and places, conveying his ironic and yet tender sense of what we, as human beings, are.
Machado's literary style has inspired many Brazilian writers. His works have been adapted to television, theater and cinema. In 1975 the Comissão Machado de Assis ("Machado de Assis Commission"), organized by the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Culture, organized and published critical editions of Machado's works, in 15 volumes. His main works have been translated into many languages. Great 20th century writers such as Salman Rushdie, Cabrera Infante and Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
, as well as the American film director Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, have proclaimed their enthusiasm for his fiction. Despite the efforts and patronage of such well-known intellectuals as Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
, Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
, and Elizabeth Hardwick
Elizabeth Hardwick
Elizabeth Hardwick was an American literary critic, novelist, and short story writer. -Life:Hardwick was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1939...
, Machado's books—the most famous of which are available in English in multiple translations—have never achieved large sales in the English-speaking world and he continues to be relatively unknown, even in comparison with other Latin American writers.
In his works, Machado appeals directly to the reader, breaking the so-called fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
.
List of works
- 1864 - Crisálidas (Chrysalids; poetry)
- 1870 - Falenas (Phalaenae; poetry)
- 1870 - Contos Fluminenses (Tales from Rio; collection of short stories)
- 1872 - RessurreiçãoRessurreiçãoRessurreição is a novel written by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. It was first published in 1872. The author explained in this book that his idea when he wrote the book was put on action this thinking of Shakespeare:...
(Resurrection; novel) - 1873 - Histórias da Meia Noite (Stories of Midnight; collection of short stories)
- 1874 - A Mão e a Luva (The Hand and the Glove; novel)
- 1875 - Americanas (poetry)
- 1876 - HelenaHelena (novel)Helena is a novel written by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. It was first published in 1876.-Plot summary:The novel opens with the family of Éstacio, whose father, Conselheiro Vale, has just died. In his will, the Conselheiro has recognized a natural daughter, previously unknown to both...
(novel) - 1878 - Iaiá Garcia (Mistress Garcia; novel)
- 1881 - Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, also known in English as Epitaph for a Small Winner; novel)
- 1882 - Papéis Avulsos (Single Papers; collection of short stories)
- 1882 - O alienistaO alienista"O Alienista" is a novella written by Brazilian author Machado de Assis. It was first published in 1882 as part of the Papéis avulsos...
(also known in English as The alienist or The psychiatrist; novella) - 1884 - Histórias sem data (Undated Stories; collection of short stories)
- 1891 - Quincas BorbaQuincas BorbaQuincas Borba is a novel written by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. It was first published in 1891. It is also known in English as Philosopher or Dog?-External links:* '** ** ** ** ...
(also known in English as Philosopher or Dog?; novel) - 1896 - Várias histórias (Several Stories; collection of short stories)
- 1899 - Páginas recolhidas (Retained Pages; collection of short stories including The Case of the StickThe case of the stickThe Case of the Stick is a 1891 short story by Brazilian writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, published first in the Gazeta de Notícias and republished in the book Páginas Recolhidas. It is an ironic depiction of slavery in Brazil and selfishness...
) - 1899 - Dom CasmurroDom CasmurroDom Casmurro, written by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, was first published in Brazil in 1899. Like The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas and Quincas Borba, both by Machado de Assis, it is a masterpiece of realist literature. It is written as a fictional memoir by a distrusting, jealous husband...
(Sir Dour; novel) - 1901 - Poesias completas (Complete poetry)
- 1904 - Esaú e Jacó (Esau and Jacob; novel)
- 1906 - Relíquias da Casa Velha (Relics of the Old House; collection of short stories)
- 1908 - Memorial de Aires (Counselor Aires's Memoirs; novel)
Titles
- Member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (1896–1908).
- President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (1897–1908).
Honours
- Knight of the Order of the RoseOrder of the RoseThe Imperial Order of the Rose is an Brazilian order of chivalry, instituted by Emperor Pedro I of Brazil on 17 October 1829 to commemorate his marriage to Amélie of Leuchtenberg....
(1867). - Officer of the Order of the Rose (1888).
Further reading
- Andrade; Mário.Mário de AndradeMário Raul de Morais Andrade was a Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art historian and critic, and photographer. One of the founders of Brazilian modernism, he virtually created modern Brazilian poetry with the publication of his Paulicéia Desvairada in 1922...
(1943) Aspectos da literatura brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Americ. Ed. - Aranha; Graça.Graça AranhaJosé Pereira da Graça Aranha was a Brazilian writer and diplomat, considered to be a forerunner of the Modernism in Brazil. He was also one of the organizers of the Brazilian Modern Art Week of 1922....
(1923) Machado de Assis e Joaquim Nabuco: Comentários e notas à correspondência. São Paulo: Monteiro Lobato. - Barreto Filho. (1947) Introdução a Machado de Assis. Rio de Janeiro: Agir.
- Bosi; Alfredo.Alfredo BosiAlfredo Bosi is a Brazilian historian, literary critic, and professor. He is member of the Academia Brasileira de Letras . One of his most famous books in Brazil is the "História Concisa da Literatura Brasileira", using in many Universities along the years...
(Organizador) Machado de Assis. - Bosi; Alfredo. (2000) Machado de Assis: o enigma do olhar. São Paulo: Ática.
- Bosi; Alfredo. Folha explica Machado de Assis.
- Broca; Brito. Machado de Assis e a política.
- Chalhoub; Sidney. (2003) Machado de Assis, historiador. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
- Faoro; RaimundoRaymundo FaoroRaymundo Faoro was a lawyer, jurist, sociologist, historian, writer and president of the Brazilian Bar Association, which in Portuguese is known as OAB . Even though lawyers have an expressive presence in the political scenery of Brazil, not one President after Faoro gained the same intellectual...
(1974) Machado de Assis: pirâmide e o trapézio. São Paulo: Cia. Ed. Nacional. - Gledson; John. Machado de Assis: ficção e história.
- Gomes; Eugênio. Influências inglesas em Machado de Assis.
- Graham; Richard (ed.). (1999) Machado de Assis: Reflections on a Brazilian Master Writer. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
- Magalhães Jr.; Raimundo. Vida e obra de Machado de Assis.
- Massa; Jean-Michel. A juventude de Machado de Assis.
- Meyer; Augusto. (1935) Machado de Assis. Porto Alegre: Globo.
- Meyer; Augusto. (1958) Machado de Assis 1935-1958. Rio de Janeiro: Livraria São José.
- Paes; José Paulo. Gregos e baianos.
- Pereira; Astrogildo. (1944) Interpretação. Rio de Janeiro: Casa do Estudante do Brasil.
- Miguel-Pereira; Lúcia. (1936) Machado de Assis: Estudo critíco e biográfico. São Paulo: Cia. Ed. Nacional.
- Schwarz; Roberto. Ao vencedor as batatas.
- Schwarz; Roberto. Duas meninas.
- Schwarz; Roberto. (1990) Um mestre na periferia do capitalismo. São Paulo: Duas Cidades. Trans. as A Master on the Periphery of Capitalism. Trans. and intro. John Gledson. Durham: Duke UP, 2001.
- Taylor; David. (2002) Wry modernist of Brazil's past. Américas Nov.-Dec. issue. Washington, DC.
- Veríssimo; José. História da Literatura Brasileira.
External links
BRASILIANA USP (University of Sao Paulo) Digitalized first editions of all the books in Pdf. Complete Works of Machado de Assis - Brazilian Ministry of Education MetaLibri Digital Library- Manuscrito de Machado de Assis - Handwritten pieces
- Espaço Machado de Assis
- João Cezar de Castro Rocha, "Introduction: Machado de Assis, the Location of an Author"
- Summaries of Machado de Assis (The Fortuneteller - A Cartomante...) http://www.shvoong.com/books/classic-literature/1734566-fortuneteller/