Novelist, poet, playwright, and short story writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839–1908) is widely regarded as Brazil's greatest writer, although his work is still too little read outside his native country. In this first comprehensive English-language examination of Machado since Helen Caldwell's seminal 1970 study, K. David Jackson reveals Machado de Assis as an important world author, one of the inventors of literary modernism whose writings profoundly influenced some of the most celebrated authors of the twentieth century, including José Saramago, Carlos Fuentes, and Donald Barthelme. Jackson introduces a hitherto unknown Machado de Assis to readers, illuminating the remarkable life, work, and legacy of the genius whom Susan Sontag called “the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America” and whom Allen Ginsberg hailed as “another Kafka.” Philip Roth has said of him that “like Beckett, he is ironic about suffering.” And Harold Bloom has remarked of Machado that “he's funny as hell.”

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.

Discusses life, time, beauty, experience, meaning, music, and art.

In "The Devil's Church", by Machado de Assis, the Devil, tired of his usual role as tempter, decides to create his own church to lead mankind astray. He promises men power and pleasure, but without the fear of eternal hell, offering a religion of debauchery and hedonism. The satire deals with the corruption and hypocrisy of religious institutions, revealing human nature and its contradictions.

The love story that the Counselor narrates revolves around Fedilia and Tristao, who both are the godchildren of childless couple Aguiar and Dona Carmo. It is thought that the marriage between Aquiar and Dona Carmo is modeled after the relationship between de Assis and his wife, Caroline. The Counselorʹs diary entries chronicles Fideliaʹs transition from a widow bent on a lifelong habit of mourning her dead husband to a woman who rediscovers the world of the living and of love. Written in the late 1880s, the counselorʹs diary documents some of the social changes taking place in Brazil. There are several mentions of slavery and its abolition on May 13, 1888. The counselor does not himself engage much with the issue saying that old ways of thinking prevail even as he recognizes that he should assume more responsibility and interest in the matter. This stance apparently reflects the authorʹs own public disengagement with the issue of slavery and its abolition. de Assis, whose father was a mulatto, has been heavily criticized for not politicizing his works and addressing the plight of black Brazilians in his works. I disagree with this sentiment. -- Description from http://kinnareads.wordpress.com (Oct. 24, 2011).

This first novel in its debut English translation visits themes the author developed exquisitely throughout his career including marriage, memory, and perspective. In this insightful translation by Karen Sherwood Sotelino, and with an introduction by Jos� Luiz Passos, the novel reveals the author’s early experiment in drawing out psychological and sociological issues of his times. Readers familiar with his mature works will recognize the progression from infatuation, through passion, doubt, and toxic jealousy, as experienced by protagonists F�lix and L�via in 19th century Rio de Janeiro.