Dom Casmurro: A Novel: Machado de Assis (Author), Helen Caldwell (Translator), Elizabeth Hardwick (Foreword)
Synopsis:
Bento Santiago, the wildly unreliable narrator of Dom Casmurro, believes that he has been cuckolded—he suspects that his wife has cheated on him with his best friend and that her child is not his. Has Capitú, his love since childhood, really been unfaithful to him? Or is the evidence of her betrayal merely the product of a paranoid mind? First published in 1900, Dom Casmurro, widely considered Machado de Assis's greatest novel and a classic of Brazilian literature, is a brilliant retelling of the classic adultery tale—a sad and darkly comic novel about love and the corrosive power of jealousy.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The unreliable narrator and the fictional memoir are long-standing literary traditions. Nineteenth-century Brazilian author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis uses both to brilliant effect in his novel Dom Casmurro. Narrated by Bento Santiago, this memoir looks back over a life filled with the suspicion of betrayal: Bento is convinced that his wife had an affair with his best friend, and that his son was the result of it. Though he has no real evidence to support this belief, Bento becomes so obsessed with it that, in the end, he commits crimes far worse than the suspected adultery to avenge himself. The memoir itself is a kind of justification for his actions; Bento, now alone, recreates the environment of his childhood and attempts to rewrite the facts of his life--in essence, reconstructing the past.
Among readers familiar with Latin American literature, Machado is considered a master. His novels blend black comedy with deadly accurate social commentary and an unerring perception of human psychology to create works that are brilliant, complex without being opaque, and joys to read. The Oxford University Press edition is ably translated by John Gledson and accompanied by critical essays that will help orient readers unfamiliar with Machado's work. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
It's the simplest of stories: boy falls in love with girl next door, they grow up, marry and have a child. Enter jealousy, exit happiness and boy/narrator, Betinho, who goes on to write his magnum opus, the History of the Suburbs . However, Betinho has been promised since conception to the priesthood, a glitch that allows de Assis to describe a community so familiar with God that bargaining with Him is as common as haggling with the butcher. This upper- middle-class Brazilian society of the last century ( Dom Casmurro was first published in 1899) is the setting for Betinho's transformation from a coddled only child to the middle-aged Dom Casmurro, or Lord Taciturn. It is marked by his fantastic imagination, both comic (as when he consults with maggots who are eating books he needs for a dissertation) and tragic (evidence of his beloved wife's infidelity is circumstantial at best). Deftly translated, Dom Casmurro is a book full of humor, sweetness and a tender melancholy--a book that deserves to be read.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
John Gledson's translation reads well and his editorial aids are valuable, if perhaps dispensable for the common reader. Machado once said that Shakespeare wrote in "the language of the soul," and so does he--hence the enjoyment of his work requires little assistance. -- The Wall Street Journal, Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria
Machado de Assis is arguably the most distinguished writer in Latin America's history. -- The New York Times Book Review, K. David Jackson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Machado de Assis is arguably the most distinguished writer in Latin America's history. -- The New York Times Book Review, K. David Jackson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Portugese
Original Language: Portugese
About the Author
Machado de Assis (1839–1908) was born in Rio de Janeiro. Among his many novels are Philosopher or Dog? and Epitaph of a Small Winner.
Funmi Tofowomo Okelola
-The Art of Living and Impermanence
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