Bernardo Guimaraes he was born on August 15, 1825, in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. He studied at the Faculty of Law of São Paulo, where he met poets such as Álvares de Azevedo (1831-1852) and experienced the bohemian romantic life. Back in Minas Gerais, he worked as a judge and teacher.
His great literary success was the novel the slave Isaura, first published in 1875. In this way, he became one of the main authors of regionalist novels of Brazilian romanticism, characterized by sentimental exaggeration and appreciation of the landscapes and customs of the interior of Brazil.
Read too: José de Alencar – the great novelist of rBrazilian omanticism
Bernardo Guimarães Biography
Bernardo Guimaraes was born on August 15, 1825, in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. His father, João Joaquim da Silva Guimarães, wrote for periodicals in the state, in addition to being the author of arcadian verses. He and his family moved to Uberaba when Bernardo was four years old.
Later, the young writer Bernardo Guimarães went to live in the city of Campo Belo, where he started the course in Hunities. At age 16, he returned to live in Ouro Preto. So, in the year 1842, he participated in the Revolution Liberal, possibly on the side of the loyalists. Five years later, in 1847, he began his studies at the Faculty of Law of São Paulo.
In this city, with writers Álvares de Azevedo and Aureliano Lessa (1828-1861), as well as other students, in 1849, he founded the famous Epicurean Society, in whose meetings the participants mixed orgy and poetry, inspired by the English poet Lord Byron (1788-1824). His bohemian life ended in 1852, when he graduated in law.
That same year, he published his first book of poetry — corners of solitude — and held the position of municipal and orphan judge in the city of Catalão, in the state of Goiás, until 1854. He then went on to write for periodicals in Rio de Janeiro, where he moved in 1859, and worked at the newspaper the present.
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In 1861, he resumed his post as judge in Catalão, until 1864, when he returned to live again in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Two years later, he returned to Ouro Preto, where he started working at the Liceu Mineiro. He married, in 1867, Teresa Maria Gomes de Lima, and soon after, lost his teaching position.
Six years later, they moved to the city of Conselheiro Lafaiete (at the time, Queluz), in Minas Gerais, where the writer occupied the position of professor of Latin and French. This time, he was also unsuccessful, and soon lost his job. Then, in 1875 he published his most famous novel— the slave Isaura — And he began to dedicate himself exclusively to literature, until his death, on March 10, 1884, in Ouro Preto.
Brazilian Academy of Letters
Bernardo Guimarães was chosen by the Parnassian poet Raimundo Correia (1859-1911) to be the patron of chair number 5 of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, an institution founded on July 20, 1897 and presided over by the realist writer Machado de Assis (1839-1908).
Read too: Olavo Bilac – important Brazilian Parnassian poet
Characteristics of the work of Bernardo Guimarães
Bernardo Guimarães was one of the main authors of regionalist novels of romanticismBrazilian. His works, therefore, have the following characteristics:
idealized love
idealized woman
Nationalism
sentimental exaggeration
Subjectivism
Theocentrism
National Heroes as Countrymen
Description of typical Brazilian landscapes and characters
Presentation of the customs of the Brazilian rural and patriarchal society
Works by Bernardo Guimarães
corners of solitude (1852)
afternoon inspirations (1858)
the shaman's voice (1860)
diverse poems (1865)
the hermit of Muquém (1869)
legends and novels (1871)
the garimpeiro (1872)
Stories and traditions of the province of Minas Gerais (1872)
the seminarian (1872)
the indian Afonso (1872)
the slave Isaura (1875)
new poetry (1876)
Maurício or Os paulistas in São João del-Rei (1877)
the damn island or the daughter of waves (1879)
the golden bread (1879)
Autumn leaves (1883)
Rosaura the foundling (1883)
The Rio das Mortes Bandit (1904)
the slave Isaura
![Cover of the book “A escrava Isaura”, by Bernardo Guimarães, published by FTD.[1]](/f/89082d5d539de94782d02d3791fb3bb1.jpg)
the slave Isaura, Bernardo Guimarães' most famous novel, tells the story of Isaura, a white enslaved, but that has a black spot on her face, a sign of her origin. Daughter of a white man, the overseer Miguel, and of Juliana, a black and enslaved woman, Isaura was born under the same condition as her mother.
The owner of the farm (married to Commander Almeida and mother of Leôncio) raises Isaura in the big house, as if she were a daughter. Thus, the protagonist has the education reserved for a rich white girl of the time. However, after the death of his parents, Leôncio becomes the owner of Isaura.
Leôncio, one of the most perverse villains in Brazilian literature, sexually desires Isaura, but despite being her owner now, he wants her to give herself to him of her own free will. However, Isaura is an idealized, demure and virgin heroine. So, with Miguel, she flees to Recife.
There, she lives as if she were free, as no one knows of her origin, and she meets Álvaro, a rich young man and abolitionist. However, Leôncio manages to capture Isaura. So, Álvaro, the hero of the story, will do everything for his beloved to be freed and for them to finally have the long-awaited happy ending.
Also access: Iracema - famous Indianist novel by José de Alencar
Curiosities about Bernardo Guimarães
Bernardo Guimarães was the writer's great-uncle Alphonsus de Guimaraens (1870-1921).
In 1881, Dom Pedro II (1825-1891) visited Minas Gerais and expressed the desire to meet the author of the slave Isaura. Thus, Bernardo Guimarães was enthusiastically received by the monarch.
One of the author's daughters, Constança (1871-888), was the famous bride of Alphonsus de Guimaraens and died at just 17 years of age, which marked the life and poetry of this Symbolist poet.
Bernardo Guimarães also wrote satirical-pornographic poetry, such as “O elixir do pajé” and “A origin do menstruo”.
Teresa Guimarães, the author's widow, was responsible for editing and posthumously publishing the work The Rio das Mortes Bandit.
In 1976, on Rede Globo, the telenovela Slave Isaura, an adaptation of the romance by Bernardo Guimarães. It has been shown, with enormous success, in dozens of countries.
Image credit
[1] FTD Publisher (reproduction)
by Warley Souza
Literature teacher
