"The young man came to his senses right at the foot of the door. He told the coachman to wait for him, and walked briskly the length of the corridor, climbing the stairs. The light was bleak, the stairsteps were worn out from all the feet that had trod them, the handrail was sticky; but he, in his turn, did not see nor feel anything. He blundered up the stairs and knocked. Once nobody appeared, he considered turning back. It was too late: his blood boiled with curiosity, his temples throbed; he hit the door again with one, two, three knocks. A woman emerged; it was the fortune-teller." Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis was born on June 21, 1839. His father was Brazilian, and his mother, Portuguese. Machado attended a public school. He was a typographer and a proofreader, and in 1869, married Carolina Xavier de Novais. He made a name for himself in the public service, and in 1897 was elected as President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. His works embrace almost all literary genres as he was a journalist, a novel and short-story writer, a poet and a playwright. He died at home in 1908 at the age of 69. Satire, social criticism, family customs, a deep view of the soul of man are some of the elements constituting his works. Machado de Assis is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the world among literary critics.

The Oxford Anthology of the Brazilian Short Story contains a selection of short stories by the best-known authors in Brazilian literature from the late nineteenth century to the present. With few exceptions, these stories have appeared in English translation, although widely separated in time and often published in obscure journals. Here they are united in a coherent edition representing Brazil's modern, vibrant literature and culture. J.M. Machado de Assis, who first perfected the genre, wrote at least sixty stories considered to be masterpieces of world literature. Ten of his stories are included here, and are accompanied by strong and diverse representations of the contemporary story in Brazil, featuring nine stories by Clarice Lispector and seven by João Guimarães Rosa. The remaining 34 authors include Mário de Andrade, Graciliano Ramos, Osman Lins, Dalton Trevisan, and other major names whose stories in translation exhibit profound artistry. The anthology is divided into four major periods, "Tropical Belle-Époque," "Modernism," "Modernism at Mid-Century," and "Contemporary Views." There is a general introduction to Brazilian literary culture and introductions to each of the four sections, with descriptions of the authors and a general bibliography on Brazil and Brazilian literature in English. It includes stories of innovation (Mário de Andrade), psychological suspense (Graciliano Ramos), satire and perversion (Dalton Trevisan), altered realities and perceptions (Murilo Rubião), repression and sexuality (Hilda Hilst, Autran Dourado), myth (Nélida Piñón), urban life (Lygia Fagundes Telles, Rubem Fonescal), the oral tale (Jorge Amado, Rachel de Queiroz) and other overarching themes and issues of Brazilian culture. The anthology concludes with a haunting story set in the opera theater in Manaus by one of Brazil's most recently successful writers, Milton Hatoum.

The Oxford Anthology of the Brazilian Short Story contains a selection of short stories by the best-known authors in Brazilian literature from the late nineteenth century to the present. With few exceptions, these stories have appeared in English translation, although widely separated in time and often published in obscure journals. Here they are united in a coherent edition representing Brazil's modern, vibrant literature and culture. J.M. Machado de Assis, who first perfected the genre, wrote at least sixty stories considered to be masterpieces of world literature. Ten of his stories are included here, and are accompanied by strong and diverse representations of the contemporary story in Brazil, featuring nine stories by Clarice Lispector and seven by Joao Guimaraes Rosa. The remaining 34 authors include Mario de Andrade, Graciliano Ramos, Osman Lins, Dalton Trevisan, and other major names whose stories in translation exhibit profound artistry. The anthology is divided into four major periods, "Tropical Belle-Epoque," "Modernism," "Modernism at Mid-Century," and "Contemporary Views." There is a general introduction to Brazilian literary culture and introductions to each of the four sections, with descriptions of the authors and a general bibliography on Brazil and Brazilian literature in English. It includes stories of innovation (Mario de Andrade), psychological suspense (Graciliano Ramos), satire and perversion (Dalton Trevisan), altered realities and perceptions (Murilo Rubiao), repression and sexuality (Hilda Hilst, Autran Dourado), myth (Nelida Pinon), urban life (Lygia Fagundes Telles, Rubem Fonescal), the oral tale (Jorge Amado, Rachel de Queiroz) and other overarching themes and issues of Brazilian culture. The anthology concludes with a haunting story set in the opera theater in Manaus by one of Brazil's most recently successful writers, Milton Hatoum.

This dictionary contains around 60,000 English terms with their Portuguese translations, making it one of the most comprehensive books of its kind. It offers a wide vocabulary from all areas as well as numerous idioms. The terms are translated from English to Portuguese. If you need translations from Portuguese to English, then the companion volume The Great Dictionary Portuguese - English is recommended.

The Carnivalesque Defunto explores the representations of death and the dead in Brazil’s collective and literary imagination. The recurring stereotype of Brazil as the land of samba, soccer, and sandy beaches overlooks a more complex cultural heritage in which, since colonial times, a relationship of proximity and reciprocity has been cultivated between the living and the dead. Robert H. Moser details the emergence of a prominent motif in modern Brazilian literature, namely the carnivalesque defunto (the dead) that, in the form of a protagonist or narrator, returns to beseech, instruct, chastise, or even seduce the living. Drawing upon the works of esteemed Brazilian writers such as Machado de Assis, Érico Veríssimo, and Jorge Amado, Moser demonstrates how the defunto, through its mocking laughter and Dionysian resurrection, simultaneously subverts and inverts the status quo, thereby exposing underlying points of tension within Brazilian social and political history. Incorporating elements of both a celestial advocate and an untrustworthy specter, the defunto also serves as a metaphor for one of modern Brazil’s greatest dilemmas: reconciling the past with the present. The Carnivalesque Defunto offers a comparative framework by juxtaposing the Brazilian literary ghost with other Latin American, Caribbean, and North American examples. It also presents a cross-disciplinary approach toward understanding the complex relationship forged between Brazil’s spiritual traditions and literary expressions.

For those who study literature, Machado de Assis, the Brazilian Pyrrhonian provides a foundation for understanding one of the most important writers of the Americas. For philosophers, the book reveals a fascinating worldview, thoroughly rooted in the traditions of ancient skepticism.

Papers presented at a workshop, Focus and background in Romance languages, that convened during the 30th Romanistentag, in Vienna, Austria, 23-27 September 2007.

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) never left Brazil and rarely traveled outside his native city of Rio de Janeiro, yet he is widely acknowledged by those who have read him as one of the major authors of the nineteenth century. His works are full of subtle irony, relentless psychological insights, and brilliant literary innovations. Yet, because he wrote in Portuguese, a language outside the mainstream of Western culture, those with access to his writings are relatively few. This book is designed not only to call new attention to this master but also to raise questions about the nature of literature itself and current alternative views on how it can be approached. Four essays address the question of Machado's "realism" in the five masterpiece novels of his maturity, especially Dom Casmurro. The noted contributors include John Gledson (University of Liverpool), João Adolfo Hansen (Universidade de São Paulo), Sidney Chalhoub (Universidade de Campinas), and Daphne Patai (University of Massachusetts at Amherst). Dain Borges of the University of California at San Diego says, "[This is the] only collection explicitly debating the question that polarizes contemporary Brazilian criticism of Machado de Assis: was he a sophisticated late realist, or was he a pioneering anti-realist, even a postmodernist? The [essayists] marshal their evidence and argument with virtuosity and arrive at sharply opposing conclusions."