Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is one of the greatest representatives of Brazilian literature.
The great writer was responsible for inaugurating Realism, which had as its starting point the work "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas", published in 1881.
Machado left a wide range of works. He was a short-story writer, chronicler, journalist, poet and playwright, in addition to being the founder of Chair No. 23 of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
Biography of Machado de Assis
Machado de Assis, whose full name is Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, was born on the hill of Livramento, Rio de Janeiro, on June 21, 1839.
Son of humble parents, his father, Francisco José de Assis, was a wall painter and his mother, the Azorean Maria Leopoldina Machado de Assis, was a washerwoman. Machado lost his mother at a very early age and that is why he was raised with his stepmother.
In 1851 his father also died. Without resources to study, he was self-taught, and at only 14 years old he published the sonnet "To Ilma. Mrs. D.P.J.A.
", in the Periodic of the Poor, of October 3, 1854. In 1855 his poem "Is it over there" is published in the magazine Marmota Fluminenses.Fascinated by bookshop and typography, in 1856 he became a typographer's apprentice at the National printing press. Two years later, in 1858, he was already a proofreader at Correio Mercantil and, in 1860, editor of the Diário do Rio de Janeiro, a position he accepted at the invitation of Quintino Bocaiuva.
Machado wrote for the magazine The mirror, a Illustrated Week it's the Journal of Families. The first book he published was the translation of Fall women have for fools. In 1864, at the age of 25, he published his first book of poetry, Chrysalis.
He was theatrical censor in 1862, and in 1867 he was promoted to assistant to the publishing director of the Official Gazette.
In 1869, he married Carolina Augusta Xavier de Novais, a Portuguese lady who helped him proofread the books and to whom he was married for 35 years.
In 1872 he published Resurrection, his first novel. In 1873, he becomes the first official in the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works.
He continued writing in newspapers and magazines. His writings were published in serials, then became books. That's what happened with one of his masterpieces, The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, published in book 1881.
Between 1881 and 1897 he published chronicles in the News Gazette.
With other intellectuals, he founded, in 1896, the Academia Brasileira de Letras, having been president the following year.
Carolina was the ideal woman for Machado de Assis. Exhausted by his intense work as a writer and civil servant, Machado suffered from epilepsy and his wife helped him not only with revisions but also taking care of him.
Always ill and to increase his suffering, in October 1904, his wife, helper and companion died. In her honor, Machado writes the poem "Carolina".
In 1908, on leave from public functions, even infirm, he wrote his last novel “Aires Memorial”.
He participated in the project to create the Academia Brasileira de Letras, being elected its president on January 28, 1897, a position held for over ten years.
On September 29, 1908, Machado de Assis died in house 18 on Rua Cosme Velho, in Rio de Janeiro, victim of cancer.
Main Works by Machado de Assis
Machado was an avid writer, produced several works, including novels, plays, poetry, sonnets, short stories, chronicles, reviews and translations:
| Works and Years of Publication | |
|---|---|
| Theater performances | Disenchantment (1861) |
| Fall of Women for Fools (1861) | |
| Almost Minister (1864) | |
| The Gods in Cloak (1866) | |
| You, Only You, Pure Love (1881) | |
| Poetry | Chrysalis (1864) |
| Falenas (1870) | |
| American (1875) | |
| Complete Poetry (1901) | |
| Tales | Fluminense Tales (1870) |
| Midnight Stories (1873) | |
| Single Papers (1882) | |
| The Alienist (1882) | |
| Stories Without Date (1884) | |
| Pages Collected (1889) | |
| Several Stories (1896) | |
| Relics of the Old House (1906) | |
| Affairs | Resurrection (1872) |
| The Hand and the Glove (1874) | |
| Helen (1876) | |
| Iaiá Garcia (1878) | |
| Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (1881) | |
| Quincas Borba (1891) | |
| Dom Casmurro (1899) | |
| Esau and Jacob (1904) | |
| Memorial de Aires (1908) |
Aires Memorial went to last work by Machado de Assis. Published in the year of his death, it is an autobiographical psychological novel that has characteristics of realism.
Machado de Assis' work has had many adaptations for cinema, TV, theater, opera, music, dance, literature and comic books (HQ).
Books by Machado de Assis that you can't miss
1. The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas
The work that inaugurates Realism in Brazil, is divided into 160 chapters. Ironically, Brás Cubas, the “deceased author”, narrates his life after he died.
The book is from 1881 and became a film in 2001, having been considered the best film at the Gramado Festival.
Learn more about this emblematic work:
- Summary and Analysis of Posthumous Memories of Brás Cubas
- Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas: Summary by Chapter
2. the alienist
Work published in 1882, is divided into 13 chapters. the alienist tells the story of Simão Bacamarte, a doctor who admits most of the city's population to his psychiatric clinic.
Also with the presence of irony, it became a film in 1970.
3. Quincas Borba
Published between 1886 and 1891, it comprises 201 short chapters and tells the story of Rubião, a disciple of the philosopher Quincas Borba.
In 1987, the work became another feature film.
4. Dom Casmurro
Work published in 1899, is presented in 148 chapters. In it, the reader gets to know the love story, full of jealousy, of Bento and Capitu.
Characteristics of Machado de Assis' Work
There are striking features in the works of this great novelist. Among them, we highlight the fact that the reader is often invited to reflect on the work, which reveals its psychological complexity.
In general, the characters are bourgeois. As for the female characters, they are strong and dominating, in addition to being adulterous and seductive. Adultery is a common theme in Machado's upbringing.
Machado's creation presents humor and intertextuality with other works.
Literature scholars claim that Machado's work can be classified into two moments. The first, influenced by José de Alencar, has more romantic features, the other, under the influence of Xavier de Maistre, has more realistic features.
- works from the romantic phase: Resurrection (1872), A Mão ea Luva (1874) and Iaiá Garcia (1878).
- Realistic phase works: Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (1881), Dom Casmurro (1899) and Quincas Borba (1891).
Learn more about realistic school:
- Realistic Prose
- Characteristics of Realism
- Authors of Brazilian Realism
Phrases by Machado de Assis
- “Forgetting is a necessity. Life is a slate, on which fate, to write a new case, needs to erase the written case.”
- “There are people who cry knowing that roses have thorns, There are others who smile knowing that thorns have roses!”
- “Word leads to word, one idea brings another, and that's how a book, a government, or a revolution is made.”
- “Each one knows how to love in his own way; the mode doesn't matter; the essential thing is that you know how to love.”
- “I like eyes that smile, gestures that apologize, touches that know how to talk and silences that declare themselves.”
- “God, for the happiness of man, invented faith and love. The devil, envious, made man confuse faith with religion and love with marriage.”
- “Capital exists, forms and survives at the expense of the working society and is not always rewarded by the profits it generates.”
- “The most ferocious of domestic animals is the wall clock. I know one who has already devoured three generations of my family.”
- “Of the qualities necessary for the game of chess, two essential ones: ready view and Benedictine patience, qualities precious in the life that is also chess, with its problems and games, some won, others lost, others null.”
- “The expected keeps us strong, steady and on our feet. The unexpected makes us fragile and proposes new beginnings.”
- “For silence has no face, but words have many faces...”
- “There are things that best say silent. Wounds to the heart, like those to the body, leave scars. Our bodies are our gardens, whose gardeners are our wills.”
- “I discovered a sublime law, the law of equivalence of windows, and established that the way to compensate for a closed window is to open another one, so that morals can continually air the conscience.”
