Machado de Assis, Joaquim Maria (zhwäkēm` mərē`ə məshä`d
dĭ əsēz`), 1839–1908, Brazilian novelist, b. Rio de Janeiro. Educated by a priest, he became a typesetter, a proofreader, and finally a journalist. His poetry and short stories were well received, but his reputation as the greatest of Brazilian writers rests upon his realistic novels. His major novels are Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881, tr. Epitaph of a Small Winner, 1952, The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, 1998), Quincas Borba (1891, tr. Philosopher or Dog?, 1954, 1998), and Dom Casmurro (1900, tr. 1953, 1998). They are distinguished by psychological insight and a profound awareness of social conditions; their objective attitude stands in sharp contrast to the prevalent romantic tendency of the time. His pessimistic view of life is impelled by irony.
dĭ əsēz`), 1839–1908, Brazilian novelist, b. Rio de Janeiro. Educated by a priest, he became a typesetter, a proofreader, and finally a journalist. His poetry and short stories were well received, but his reputation as the greatest of Brazilian writers rests upon his realistic novels. His major novels are Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881, tr. Epitaph of a Small Winner, 1952, The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, 1998), Quincas Borba (1891, tr. Philosopher or Dog?, 1954, 1998), and Dom Casmurro (1900, tr. 1953, 1998). They are distinguished by psychological insight and a profound awareness of social conditions; their objective attitude stands in sharp contrast to the prevalent romantic tendency of the time. His pessimistic view of life is impelled by irony.
Bibliography
See studies by H. Caldwell (1970) and J. Gledson (1984).
Machado de Assis, Joaquim Maria
(born June 21, 1839, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.—died Sept. 29, 1908, Rio de Janeiro) Brazilian poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Machado began to write in his spare time while working as a printer's apprentice. By 1869 he was a successful man of letters. His witty, pessimistic works, rooted in European cultural traditions, include the eccentric first-person narrative Epitaph of a Small Winner (1881) and the novels Philosopher or Dog? (1891) and Dom Casmurro (1899), the latter his masterpiece. Considered the classic master of Brazilian literature, he became the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1896.
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