Product Description

Newly translated by Gregory Rabassa and superbly edited by Enylton de Sá Rego and Gilberto Pinheiro Passos, this Library of Latin America edition brings to English-speaking readers a literary delight of the highest order.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168805 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

The Wall Street Journal
"A tour de force of surprising modernity."

Review
A tour de force of surprising modernity. (The Wall Street Journal )

Customer Reviews

This is one of the best books I ever read.
I am a Brazilian professor and I read in English, Spanish, Italian and French. I rate this book with the best novels of Flaubert, Mann, Lampedusa, Dickens, Balzac and others. It is a superb account of life in 19th Century Rio de Janeiro, a masterpiece of a writer whose only sin was writing in an almost unknown language: portuguese!

The Best Novel Ever ? Probably
Benefitting from the hindsight afforded to one who is dead, our hero, Bras Cubas decides to take up a pen and write an account of his life. From the grave. Brutally acerbic, sarcastic and above all honest, Mr Cubas pulls no punches about those he loved, envied and disliked; as he takes us on a wondrous narrative through his life. But above all, knowing the End has already been met, he is brutally honest about himself and his own failings, in the way ( I imagine) only the dead can be. This novel is light years ahead of its time. Astonishing.

This one is great
This is great. By far better than Dom Casmurro, Brás Cubas is the ultimate watcher and critic of society. Having been part of it, but now dead, he is able to rant about it without fear or a restraining morale. Machado de Assis shows most of his superb characteristics here: irony, pessimism, short chapters, digression, strong female characters. A must buy if you are into Realism or just plain olg good literature.