brazilian bilingual book club| machado de assis | … · the lifetime of the author under the...

2017- Celebrating the love of reading Brazilian literature

The year of #lovetoreadBrazil

©BRAZILIAN BILINGUAL BOOK CLUB – CULTURAL SECTION - EMBASSY OF BRAZIL IN LONDON

All rights reserved - Creator & Convenor -©Nadia Kerecuk

14-16 Cockspur Street London SW11Y 5BL

http://londres.itamaraty.gov.br/en-us/book_club.xml

BRAZILIAN BILINGUAL BOOK CLUB| MACHADO DE ASSIS | MISS DOLLAR |

22nd JUN, 6.30-9 PM 2017- the year of #lovetoreadBrazil

Miss Dollar. Stories by Machado de Assis (Miss Dollar + 9 short stories - various dates from 1864 and 1885)

Bilingual edition (2016)

Miss Dollar in Contos Fluminenses 1870

Who is Miss Dollar? And the Blue (she) Parasite & the Woman in Black & Dona Augusta?








Miss Dollar, in the imagination of a reader, could be a beautiful slim blond blue-eyed English girl… but read it…& be genuinely

surprised.

Join a cast of friars, doctors, bachelors of law and others in pursuit of happiness!

How does one find happiness? By falling in love with love! Or by

finding multiple lovers!

What is at the core of marriage? An ages-old invention: asset swaps!

A father even plans to marry off his very young daughter to

recover from his reckless spending and bankruptcy!

How many references to Britain and British life can you spot in the most British Brazilian author?

Laugh with Machado - if you cannot find any proper job

whatsoever, just become a politician!

During these times of turmoil and uncertainty, there is nothing better remedy than cuddling up with some witty novelettes and short stories spun by the universal master story teller - Machado

de Assis!

DETAILS OF AVAILABLE PUBLICATIONS:

ENGLISH Miss Dollar: Stories by Machado de Assis (2016) (bilingual edition) translated by

Greicy P. Bellin & Ana Lessa-Schmidt, New London Librarium: Hanover, CT.

ISBN-10: 0996674748; ISBN-13: 978-0996674744 ASIN: B01GKHFO34

PORTUGUESE








NB. This is a bilingual edition of a selection of ten short stories originally

published both in feuilleton format and in short story collections. Most are

available in various available editions from 19th century onwards including free

public domain downloads.

Contos Fluminenses (1870) contains the following short stories: Miss Dollar, A

mulher de preto, O segredo de Augusta, Confissões de uma viúva moça, Frei

Simão

https://digital.bbm.usp.br/handle/bbm/4585?locale=en

http://machado.mec.gov.br/images/stories/pdf/contos/macn001.pdf

Histórias da meia-noite (1873) contains: A Parasita Azul, Relógio de ouro


& A parasita azul can be also downloaded from

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_parasita_azul.html?id=dl2cCQA

AQBAJ&redir_esc=y

The short stories – Três Consequências and Só! are available at

http://machado.mec.gov.br/contos-avulsos-links-174

SHORT HISTORY OF THE BOOK AND TRANSLATIONS

The 2016 bilingual edition of a selection of novelettes and short stories,

published by the New London Librarium, comprises stories written by

Machado de Assis between 1864 and 1885. In selecting the stories, the Editor(s)

opted for the title of one of the novelettes, Miss Dollar.

It is important to be reminded of the background of those Machadian

decades, in which the short stories and novelettes were published in a feuilleton

format first and, then, in book format, not only in Brazil but throughout Europe

and North America. During the two decades that span the publications of the

stories we are reading this month, Machado de Assis was writing plays, poetry,

short stories and novels along with chronicles, parliamentary reports and

reviews as well as translations. The stories published under the title Miss Dollar

illustrate something, which has long been overlooked, namely, how he

developed his ideas to create some of the most memorable and bewitching

women characters in Brazilian and, indeed, universal literature. Equally, the


https://digital.bbm.usp.br/handle/bbm/4585?locale=en



https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_parasita_azul.html?id=dl2cCQAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_parasita_azul.html?id=dl2cCQAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y







themes - of universal ad timeless appeal – were shaped in ab ovo narrative or

poem forms, some of which subsequently evolved into full-fledged longer

narratives. If you have read the other novels by the author, you will certainly

recall some shared features.

Some of Machado de Assis’s original stories appeared under various pen

names. In this selection, Confissões de uma Viúva Moça was originally signed by

the author ‘J.’ in the Jornal das Famílias in 1865. Most of the stories were

published in Jornal das famílias, A Estação and one in Gazeta de Notícias. Most of

the stories featuring in this 2016 edition were subsequently published during

the lifetime of the author under the titles: Contos Fluminenses in 1870 and

Histórias da meia-noite in 1873. Three stories were published either separately or

in various anthologies.

The original stories were published in: Frei Simão - Jornal das famílias 1864 issue 6

Confissões de uma Viúva Moça - Jornal das famílias 1865 issues 4, 5 &6

O carro n. 13 - Jornal das famílias 1868 issue 3

A mulher de Preto - Jornal das famílias 1868 issues 3 & 5








O segredo de Augusta - Jornal das famílias 1868 issue 7 & 8

Miss Dollar - Contos Fluminenses 1870 pp. 5-56 [ NB. There is regrettably a

mistake in 2016 edition regarding the original edition of Contos Fluminenses,

giving the date of the Jackson edition of 1937, which is not the original edition –

page 352]

A parasita azul - Jornal das famílias 1872 issues 6, 7, 8 & 9

O Relógio de ouro - Jornal das famílias 1873 issues 4 & 5 Três Consequências - A Estação 1883 Só! - Gazeta de Notícias 1885 issue 6








Jornal das Famílias was an illustrated publication in form of 19th century

almanacs, and a significant part of the editorial activities of the Garnier

Brothers, who changed their name to B. L. Garnier and finally to Livraria

Garnier, in print from January 1863 to December 1878, replacing in a different

format his periodical Revista Popular ( 1859 -1862). Machado de Assis began to

contribute to the magazine in its second year often using either pseudonyms or

initials. The first story, which he published in the Jornal das Famílias, was Frei

Simão. He would publish a total of 85 short stories in the section ‘Romances e

novelas’ (Novels and novelettes) and one of his stories appeared in the Travel

section. Garnier profited a great deal with the publications of works by

Machado de Assis.








The translation of Miss Dollar 2016 selection of stories is by Greicy Pinto

Bellin and Ana Lessa-Schmidt, and the editor is Ralph Hunter Cheney of the

New London Librarium, a small literary press in Hanover, Connecticut, which

has been publishing translations of some of the Brazilian classics along with

texts in Portuguese in updated orthography. The publication of this translation

was made possible by the translation grants from the National Library of Brazil.

It contains an introduction by Ana Cláudia Suriani da Silva, lecturer in

Brazilian Studies at the University College London, of the University of

London. As ever, we advise our book members to read the stories and should

anyone wish to read the introduction, be reminded that it is a particular point of

view at a one specific point in time and, thus, inevitably partial. Ana Lessa-Schmidt, born in Rio, grew up in the Amazon, and has lived

in the UK since 2004. She holds a BA degree in English Literature from the

Federal University of Amazon, an MA in Contemporary British Society and a

PhD in Brazilian Cultural Studies (Protest Music during the dictatorship) and

also teaches at the Federal University of Amazon. She has been working as a

Senior Editor Translator to New London Librarium (NLL) with Glenn Cheney

since 2014. She has translated Religions in Rio and Vertiginous Life by João do

Rio Vertiginous Life and one short story, Trio in A Minor, in the Machado de

Assis short story selection Ex-Cathedra as well.

Greicy Pinto Bellin, born in Passo Fundo, State of Rio Grande do Sul,

holds a BA in Portuguese and English (2007), an MA in Literary Studies (2010) and

a PhD (2015) from the Federal University of Paraná. She taught English at the

Language Centre of the Federal University of Paraná. Her doctoral research was on

Modernity, identity and cosmopolitan metropolis in Poe, Baudelaire and Machado de Assis. She

has also researched the use of parody in Machado de Assis and Camilo Castelo Branco.

Miss Dollar is her first joint published translation.

The fact that the translated text mirrors the original as the reader turns

the pages brings various advantages for bilingual readers or those who are

learning Portuguese (or English for that matter), and needless to say, to those

who are interested in the art of translation.

There notes to the stories in this volume, which appear at the end of each

translated story and would probably require greater consistency and some revision.

Some content revision in the notes would also help (dates, terminology, abbreviations,

register).








For instance, note 3, on page 64, tells a story without providing any source and

not easily found anywhere. There are various versions of the legend of Pêro Botelho

and his cauldron (Pêro is an archaic form of the name Pedro) since

approximately the 16th century. The legend was certainly brought by the

Portuguese settlers and may have originated in the Island of São Miguel in

Azores. It was probably an aid to religious teachings as Pêro Botelho stands for

the devil, continuing the medieval tradition of not uttering the word ‘devil’.

The Azorian version tells the story of a Pêro Botelho, who goes down into the

Furnas (creeks and valley), sliding on the mud of remainders of active

volcanoes featuring Our Lady of Liberty, with the recurrent Christian religious

theme.

It is worth reminding ourselves that the author’s grandparents José e

Ana Rosa, who got married in Ponta Delgada, precisely in the island of São

Miguel dos Açores, in 1809 and later emigrated to Brazil in 1815 at the

instigation of the King Dom João VI.

Another version of the legend relates to the origins of sugar and

aguardente, literally, ‘burning water’, the brandy made from sugar cane. For

instance, the 2005 book Portugal Lendário - O Livro de Ouro das nossas Lendas e

Tradições by José Viale Moutinho (1945- ) is a good source.

The whole text would benefit from a thorough revision as various errors

were not edited out. The use of contractions (don’t/ isn’t, etc.) in sections of the

narrative by Machado de Assis is not always appropriate – the register used by

the author was largely ignored in the translation. Contractions are not

conventionally used in the notes, either. In addition, the splitting of syllables

has probably been made automatically by some software, and it leaves the

reader with a niggling feeling, which is detrimental to the enjoyment of

reading, as syllables are repeatedly split in the wrong place. The New London

Librarium would need to engage a third party reader to weed out errors before

texts go to print.

The cover of the volume is a reprint of a painting Lady and a Greyhound

( c.1895), by the Czech Václav Brožík (1851-1901). The paint is at the National

Gallery at the Prague Castle.


http://www.the-athenaeum.org/people/detail.php?id=6545







BIOGRAPHY

JOAQUIM MARIA MACHADO DE ASSIS (1839-1908)








Lina Iara Otto for the Machado de Assis Week – Embassy of Brazil in London 2007

From our earlier Book Club postings (January and October 2015, Aug 2016)








ON THE 106TH ANNIVERSARY OF MACHADO DE ASSIS’S DEATH

October 2, 2014 · in LITERATURE. ·

‘Há coisas que melhor se dizem calando’

‘Some things are better said by remaining silent’

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, (21st June 1839, Rio de Janeiro – 29th September 1908, Rio de Janeiro) is the most celebrated classic Brazilian writer, thinker and a social critic. A true man of genius, he wrote poetry, novels and short-stories, plays, chronicles, translations (including Oliver Twist by C. Dickens), parliamentary reports, economic outlook articles and much more. His insights into the life and times of 19th century Brazil permeate all of his works. A classic master of Brazilian and world literature covertly brought some of leading European and universal ideas to Brazil.

An extraordinary man of letters of mixed race and an immense capacity to respond to the challenges that life presented him. Many are the similarities between Machado de Assis’s and Charles Dickens’ childhood and youth, both living in the 19th century capitals Rio de Janeiro and London. Both had to start work early and amassed their vast knowledge through unwavering determination. Machado de Assis also had to live with epileptic seizures, misunderstood in medical circles in 19th exerting adverse effects on social wellbeing. He became a printer’s apprentice at the age of 17 and taught himself various languages and mastered universal literature. He had a keen interest in music and excelled as a chess player. He would start writing very early, become an exemplary civil servant and remained happily married to a cultured woman, Carolina Augusta Xavier de Novais. He was a founder member and was elected as the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. In 1908, he would receive a state funeral.

In addition to leaving a legacy of superlative novels and short stories,

poems, plays and chronicles, Machado de Assis bequeathed some of the deepest appraisals of the values and attitudes of the societies of 19th century Rio reflecting a keen sense of ethics. Machado’s oeuvre is timeless. It is also inter-textual – there is a dialogue between author and narrator with texts from Antiquity, the Fathers of the Church, science treatises and world literature. His dialogue with the reader/interlocutor fits well into many a speech act theory and can illustrate fascinating aspects of human understanding. The topics and ideas that appear in his poems and plays and chronicles later reappear in his


http://culturalbrazil.org/2014/10/02/on-the-106th-anniversary-of-machado-de-assiss-death/

http://culturalbrazil.org/category/books/literature-books/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/504192/Rio-de-Janeiro

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/343579/literature







novels – they constitute the ab ovo of subsequent full-fledged narratives, creating thus an internal dialogue, intertextuality of a very original kind foreshadowing much modern writing. His influence on literature both in Brazil and elsewhere remains a source of inspiration for many. Susan Sontag once referred to him as the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom went further describing him as ‘the supreme black literary artist to date’ (in Genius, 2002). Salman Rushdie remarked that

‘If Borges is the writer who made Garcia Marquez possible, then, it is no exaggeration to say that Machado de Assis is the writer who made Borges possible’.

The influence that Machado the Assis has had on Jorge L. Borges has more often than not been neglected. Louis de Bernières is another author that reads Machado. Haruki Murakami is another contemporary author amongst many who have been read Machado de Assis.

Works on Machado abound and yet little of what he actually wrote is read by many and in many languages. His Dom Casmurro, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, Quincas Borba have features of timeless universal literature akin to the greatest authors of all times. Scholars have more often than not tried to classify his works as realist, romantic or fit them into a fixed category or methodological frameworks but have failed invariably as the distinguishing features of his oeuvre extend beyond such models. Translations of his works into English need to deliver the inherent quality of both his exquisite use of Brazilian Portuguese and his true genius – not an easy task. The British Library holds more than 300 copies of various works by Machado de Assis including some of his earliest works acquired in the 19th century, reflecting the interest that his works attracted at the time.

His works are universal and ought to be read and/or re-read and treasured in every library.

By Nadia Kerecuk


http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/susan_sontag/index.html?inline=nyt-per

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/harold_bloom/index.html?inline=nyt-per

https://embassyofbrazillondon.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/ma3.png







You may also find this BBC Radio Scotland programme by Mark Rickards broadcast in

January 2015 relevant and one of our book club members, David Acton, reads excerpts

from The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas and other works.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gthsd

BIOGRAPHIES (selection):

The Brazilian Academy of Letters has a link to the site with various archival materials: http://www.machadodeassis.org.br/

JOSÉ GALANTE SOUSA (1913-1986) remains one of the main scholars and biographers of Machado de Assis

with Bibliografia de Machado de Assis (1955), as Fontes para o estudo de Machado de Assis (1958) & Cronologia de

Machado de Assis (published in 1958 – Revista do Livro, and republished in Cadernos de Literatura Brasileira of

the Instituto Moreira Salles)

FRANCISCO DE ASSIS BARBOSA (1914-1991) Another excellent albeit short biography in the form of an essay written

in 1988 as an introduction to the collection of 17 books on Machado de Assis printed by Machado’s editor Livraria Garnier

(Rio de Janeiro e Belo Horizonte): Machado de Assis – Vida e Obra: Parábola Perfeita. The essay appears in

Ressureição (part of Coleção de Autores Célebres da Literatura Brasileira pages 11-52). This collection of the Machado de

Assis works is one of the very best in terms of quality of the texts vis-à-vis original sources and deserves to be used by

scholars to verify textual variations of various extant editions of Machado de Assis.

WILSON MARTINS (1921-2010), a most distinguished intellectual/cultural historian and literary critic, has not written a

biography of Machado de Assis, but volumes four and five of his História da Inteligência Brasileira (2nd edition-1996, seven

volumes published by the Secretary of Culture of the State of Paraná, an initiative and a foreword by the then Secretary for

Culture, lawyer and intellectual, Dr. Eduardo Rocha Virmond) is an essential source for any Machadian and/or historian of

ideas.

DANIEL PIZA (1970-2011) wrote a more recent biography Machado de Assis Um gênio brasileiro [Machado de Assis: a

Brazilian Man of Genius, N.K.], 2nd revised ed. 2006, beautifully illustrated with reprints from original sources.

Attendance is free, but booking is essential: [email protected]

©Nadia Kerecuk Creator and Convenor of the © Brazilian Bilingual Book Club of

the Embassy of Brazil in London


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gthsd

http://www.machadodeassis.org.br/

mailto:[email protected]

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