June 21, Machado de Assis' birthday - Brazilian writer

Today we celebrate the 178th birthday of one of the greatest Brazilian writers, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis.

Machado de Assis, born on June 21, 1839. Greatest Brazilian writer and patron of the National Press, title conferred by presidential decree of January 13, 1997, here he began his professional activity as an apprentice typographer, between 1856 and 1858, in then National Typographia directed by the also writer Manuel Antonio de Almeida. Later, Machado de Assis returned to work as assistant to the Director of the Official Gazette, from 1867 to 1874. The Press Museum preserves in excellent condition the press where he worked as an apprentice typographer, rightly called Machado de Assis press. One of the most admired pieces in the collection.

The main books of Machado de Assis

The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis

"In his posthumous memoirs, Braz Cubas, a wealthy nineteenth-century Brazilian, examines (from beyond the grave) his rather undistinguished life in 160 short chapters that both cover the basics of his existence and open out into philosophical explorations that sometimes follow meandering paths of thought to unexpected places, at times exuberant and hilarious, at other times cynical and utterly at odds with the world around him. In the tradition of Laurence Sterne and Jonathan Swift -- and as a clear forerunner of the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges -- Epitaph of a Small Winner, first published in 1880, is one of the wittiest self-portraits in literary history, as well as quite possibly the greatest novel you have never heard of"

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Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis

Dom Casmurro is an 1899 novel written by Brazilian author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. Like The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas and Quincas Borba, both by Machado de Assis, it is widely regarded as a masterpiece of realist literature. It is written as a fictional memoir by a distrusting, jealous husband. The narrator, however, is not a reliable conveyor of the story as it is a dark comedy. Dom Casmurro is considered by critic Afranio Coutinho "a true Brazilian masterpiece, and maybe Brazil's greatest representative piece of writing" and "one of the best books ever written in the Portuguese language, if not the best one to date." The author is considered a master of Brazilian literature with a unique style of realism.

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Full List of works

Novel

1860 – Hoje avental, amanhã luva (play)

1861 – Desencantos (play)

1863 – O caminho da porta and O protocolo (two plays)

1864 – Quase ministro (play)

1864 – Crisálidas (poetry)

1866 – Os deuses de casaca (play)

1870 – Falenas (poetry)

1870 – Contos Fluminenses (collection of short stories)

1872 – Ressurreição (Resurrection; novel)

1873 – Histórias da meia-noite (collection of short stories)

1874 – A Mão e a Luva (The Hand and the Glove; novel)

1875 – Americanas (poetry)

1876 – Helena (novel)

1878 – Iaiá Garcia (novel)

1878 – O bote de rapé (play)

1881 – Tu, só tu, puro amor (play)

1881 – Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, also known in English as Epitaph of a Small Winner; novel)

1881 – O Alienista (The Psychiatrist, or The Alienist; novella)

1882 – Papéis avulsos (collection of short stories, including "O Alienista")

1884 – Histórias sem data (collection of short stories)

1891 – Quincas Borba (also known in English as Philosopher or Dog?; novel)

1896 – Várias histórias (collection of short stories)

1899 – Páginas recolhidas (collection of short stories, including The Case of the Stick and the play Não consultes médico)

1899 – Dom Casmurro (novel)

1901 – Ocidentais (poetry)

1901 – Poesias Completas (complete poetry)

1904 – Esaú e Jacó (Esau and Jacob; novel)

1906 – Lição de botânica (play)

1906 – Relíquias de Casa Velha (collection of short stories)

1908 – Memorial de Aires (Counselor Ayres' Memorial; novel)

Posthumous

1910 – Teatro Coligido (collected plays)

1910 – Crítica

1914 – A Semana (collection of articles)

1921 – Outras Relíquias (collection of short stories)

1921 – Páginas Escolhidas (collection of short stories)

1932 – Novas Relíquias (collection of short stories)

1937 – Crônicas (articles)

1937 – Crítica Literária

1937 – Crítica Teatral

1937 – Histórias Românticas

1939 – Páginas Esquecidas

1944 – Casa Velha

1956 – Diálogos e Reflexões de um Relojoeiro

1958 – Crônicas de Lélio

Translations

1861 – Queda que as mulheres têm para os tolos, from the original De l'amour des femmes pour les sots, by Victor Hénaux

1865 – Suplício de uma mulher, from the original Le supplice d'une femme, by Émile de Girardin

1866 – Os Trabalhadores do Mar, from the original Les Travailleurs de la mer, by Victor Hugo

1870 – Oliver Twist, from the original Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress, by Charles Dickens[32]

1883 – O Corvo, from The Raven, a famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Collected works

There are several published "Complete Works" of Machado de Assis:

1920 – Obras Completas. Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Garnier (20 vols.)

1962 – Obras Completas. Rio de Janeiro: W.M. Jackson (31 vols.)

1997 – Obras Completas. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Globo (31 vols.)

2006 – Obras Completas. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Aguilar (3 vols.)

Works in English translation

1921 – Brazilian Tales. Boston: The Four Seas Company (London: Dodo Press, 2007).

1952 – Epitaph of a Small Winner. New York: Noonday Press (London: Hogarth Press, 1985; republished as The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas: A Novel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997; Epitaph of a Small Winner. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008; UK: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008).

1953 – Dom Casmurro: A Novel. New York: Noonday Press (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966; republished as Dom Casmurro. Lord Taciturn. London: Peter Owen, 1992; Dom Casmurro: A Novel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

1954 – Philosopher or Dog? New York: Avon Books (republished as The Heritage of Quincas Borba. New York: W.H. Allen, 1957; New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992; republished as Quincas Borba: A Novel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

1963 – The Psychiatrist, and Other Stories. Berkeley: University of California Press.

1965 – Esau and Jacob. Berkeley: University of California Press.

1970 – The Hand & the Glove. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

1972 – Counselor Ayres' Memorial. Berkeley: University of California Press (republished as The Wager: Aires' Journal. London: Peter Owen, 1990; also republished as The Wager, 2005).

1976 – Yayá Garcia: A Novel. London: Peter Owen (republished as Iaiá Garcia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1977).

1977 – The Devil's Church and Other Stories. Austin: University of Texas Press (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1987).

1984 – Helena: A Novel. Berkeley: University of California Press.

2008 – A Chapter of Hats and Other Stories. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

2012 – The Alienist. New York: Melville House Publishing.

2013 – Resurrection. Pennsylvania: Latin American Literary Review Press.

2013 – The Alienist and Other Stories of Nineteenth-century Brazil. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.

2014 – Ex Cathedra: Stories by Machado de Assis — Bilingual Edition. Hanover, Conn.: New London Librarium.

2016 – Miss Dollar: Stories by Machado de Assis — Bilingual Edition. Hanover, Conn.: New London Librarium.

2018 – Trio in A-Minor: Five Stories by Machado de Assis—Bilingual Edition. Hanover, Conn.: New London Librarium.

2018 - The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis. New York : Liveright & Company.

2018 – Good Days!: The Bons Dias! Chronicles of Machado de Assis (1888-1889) — Bilingual Edition. Hanover, Conn.: New London Librarium.

Good Read, 

Sidney Matias

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