The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis
960The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis
960Hardcover
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Overview
A landmark event, the complete stories of Machado de Assis finally appear in English for the first time in this extraordinary new translation.
Widely acclaimed as the progenitor of twentieth-century Latin American fiction, Machado de Assis (1839–1908)—the son of a mulatto father and a washerwoman, and the grandson of freed slaves—was hailed in his lifetime as Brazil’s greatest writer. His prodigious output of novels, plays, and stories rivaled contemporaries like Chekhov, Flaubert, and Maupassant, but, shockingly, he was barely translated into English until 1963 and still lacks proper recognition today. Drawn to the master’s psychologically probing tales of fin-de-siecle Rio de Janeiro, a world populated with dissolute plutocrats, grasping parvenus, and struggling spinsters, acclaimed translators Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson have now combined Machado’s seven short-story collections into one volume, featuring seventy-six stories, a dozen appearing in English for the first time.
Born in the outskirts of Rio, Machado displayed a precocious interest in books and languages and, despite his impoverished background, miraculously became a well-known intellectual figure in Brazil’s capital by his early twenties. His daring narrative techniques and coolly ironic voice resemble those of Thomas Hardy and Henry James, but more than either of these writers, Machado engages in an open playfulness with his reader—as when his narrator toys with readers’ expectations of what makes a female heroine in “Miss Dollar,” or questions the sincerity of a slave’s concern for his dying master in “The Tale of the Cabriolet.”
Predominantly set in the late nineteenth-century aspiring world of Rio de Janeiro—a city in the midst of an intense transformation from colonial backwater to imperial metropolis—the postcolonial realism of Machado’s stories anticipates a dominant theme of twentieth-century literature. Readers witness the bourgeoisie of Rio both at play, and, occasionally, attempting to be serious, as depicted by the chief character of “The Alienist,” who makes naively grandiose claims for his Brazilian hometown at the expense of the cultural capitals of Europe. Signifiers of new wealth and social status abound through the landmarks that populate Machado’s stories, enlivening a world in the throes of transformation: from the elegant gardens of Passeio Público and the vibrant Rua do Ouvidor—the long, narrow street of fashionable shops, theaters and cafés, “the Via Dolorosa of long-suffering husbands”—to the port areas of Saúde and Gamboa, and the former Valongo slave market.
One of the greatest masters of the twentieth century, Machado reveals himself to be an obsessive collector of other people’s lives, who writes: “There are no mysteries for an author who can scrutinize every nook and cranny of the human heart.” Now, The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis brings together, for the first time in English, all of the stories contained in the seven collections published in his lifetime, from 1870 to 1906. A landmark literary event, this majestic translation reintroduces a literary giant who must finally be integrated into the world literary canon.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780871404961 |
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Publisher: | Liveright Publishing Corporation |
Publication date: | 06/12/2018 |
Pages: | 960 |
Product dimensions: | 6.40(w) x 8.90(h) x 2.00(d) |
About the Author
Margaret Jull Costa, who has translated Javier Marías and José Saramago, lives in England.
Robin Patterson has translated José Luandino Vieira and lives in England.
Table of Contents
Foreword Michael Wood ix
Introduction xvii
Rio Tales (1870)
Miss Dollar 3
Luis Soares 26
The Woman in Black 47
Augusta's Secret 77
Confessions of a Young Widow 103
Straight Line, Curved Line 127
Brother Simão 174
Midnight Tales (1873)
The Blue Flower 187
Luis Duarte's Wedding 227
Ernesto What's-His-Name 242
Much Heat, Little Light 264
The Gold Watch 283
Point of View 291
Miscellaneous Papers (1882)
The Alienist 315
How to Be a Bigwig 363
The Turkish Slipper 372
In the Ark 383
Dona Benedita 390
The Bonze's Secret 411
Polycrates's Ring 419
The Loan 428
The Most Serene Republic 436
The Mirror 444
A Visit from Alcibiades 453
Testamentary Disposition 460
Undated Stories (1884)
The Devil's Church 475
The Lapse 483
Final Chapter 492
Nuptial Song 500
A Strange Thing 505
Posthumous Picture Gallery 513
The Chapter on Hats 522
An Alexandrian Tale 536
Cousins from Sapucaia? 545
A Lady 554
Pecuniary Anecdote 562
Fulano 572
Second Life 578
Admiral's Night 586
A Sacristan's Manuscript 593
Ex Cathedra 601
Galvão's Wife 609
The Academies of Siam 617
Assorted Stories (1896)
The Fortune-Teller 631
Among Saints 640
Her Arms 648
Fame 657
The Object of Desire 667
The Secret Cause 676
Trio in A Minor 686
Adam and Eve 694
The Gentleman's Companion 700
Mr. Diplomat 709
Mariana 719
A School Tale 728
An Apologue 736
Dona Paula 739
Life! 748
The Canon, or the Metaphysics of Style 756
Collected Pages (1899)
The Cane 765
The Dictionary 773
A Wanderer 777
Eternal 795
Midnight Mass 806
Canary Thoughts 814
Xerxes's Tears 819
Old Letters 826
Relics from an Old House (1906)
Father Against Mother 841
Maria Cora 852
Funeral March 870
A Captain of Volunteers 878
Into the Mire! 891
The Holiday 896
Evolution 904
Pylades and Orestes 910
The Tale of the Cabriolet 920