Books by Machado de Assis

Bento Santiago is madly in love with his neighbour, Capitu. He even breaks a promise his devout mother made to God - that he become a priest - in order to marry her. But, once wed, Bento becomes increasingly convinced that Capitu is having a torrid affair, that his son is not his own, and that his best friend has cuckolded him. What follows is a rich and sardonic narrative, as Bento attempts to discern his son's paternity. Are his suspicions actually based in reality or have his obsessive ruminations given way to deceptive illusions? Originally published in Brazil in 1900, Dom Casmurro is widely considered Machado de Assis's greatest work and a classic of Brazilian realist literature. It is a delightful and hilarious novel - told by an entertainingly unreliable narrator - about the powers of jealousy and the deceitful persuasiveness of a mind in the grip of paranoia. 'If Borges is the writer who made Garcia Marquez possible then it is no exaggeration to say that Machado De Assis is the writer who made Borges possible.' - Salman Rushdie 'The greatest writer ever produced in Latin America.' - Susan Sontag 'Machado de Assis is a great ironist, a tragic comedian. In his books, in their most comic moments, he underlines the suffering by making us laugh.' - Philip Roth 'Machado de Assis was a literary force, transcending nationality and language, comparable certainly to Flaubert, Hardy or James.' - New York Times Book Review

Enchanting, fresh translations of the finest stories by Brazil's greatest writer and author of short stories, cited as the greatest black writer in Western literature "Machado de Assis showed the human comedy is the same everywhere, and in conflicts between man and society, society usually wins." --The New Yorker Machado de Assis is one of the most enigmatic and fascinating story writers who ever lived. What appear at first to be stately social satires reveal unanticipated depths through flashes of darkness and winking surrealism. This new selection of his finest work, translated by the prize-winning Daniel Hahn, showcases the many facets of his mercurial genius. A brilliant scientist opens the first asylum in his home town, only to start finding signs of insanity all around him. A young lieutenant basks in praise, but in solitude feels his identity fray into nothing. The reading of a much-loved elder statesman's journals reveals hidden thoughts of merciless cruelty. This beautiful new collection of fresh translations offers the perfect gathering of his most beloved stories: The Fortune-TellerThe Posthumous Portrait GalleryThe LoanThe Tale of the CabrioletThe StickThe Secret CauseThe Canon, or Metaphysics of StyleThe AlienistThe Looking-GlassMidnight Mass

Au moment ou il inventait un remede capable de resoudre tous les problemes du monde, Braz Cubas meurt d'une pneumonie.Depuis la tombe, il decide de rediger ses memoires posthumes dedies au ver qui le premier a ronge la viande froide de son cadavre A commencer par le recit de ses funerailles, morceau de vie apres morceau de vie, il devoile ce qu'il a ete ; de son enfance durant laquelle la richesse et la gloire lui monte a la tete, en passant par ses echecs amoureux, jusqu'a ses desillusions finales.Machado de Assis, le meilleur ecrivain d'origine africaine selon Harold Bloom, decrit avec precision et humour noir le Bresil de la fin du XIXeme siecle. Son style libre et innovateur, ainsi que sa facon originale d'aborder des themes tels que l'inegalite sociale et l'esclavagisme, font de lui un des plus grands auteurs de la litterature bresilienne et de l'histoire. Machado de Assis a anticipe des elements du Modernisme et inspire bon nombre d'auteurs tels que Jorge Luis Borges, John Barth, et Donald Barthelme.-

The later novels of Machado de Assis -- notably Dom Casmurro and Esau and Jacob -- are well known in this country, but the earlier novels have never been translated.

The last of four novels that preceded Machado de Assis's famous trilogy of realistic masterpieces, Iaia Garcia belongs to what critics have called the Brazilian author's "romantic" phase.

The rich and eccentric philosopher Quincas Borbas names his dog after himself because he knows his pet will outlive him. Quincas does die first, leaving his fortune to his friend Rube provided that he takes care for the dog. The dim-witted friend is hardly prepared for the life that awaits him.

Translated from the Portuguese by John Gledson 'Dazzling ... guaranteed to leave most unsuspecting readers eager for more' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

'One of the masterpieces of Brazilian literature The kind of humour that makes skulls smile' Salman Rushdie