Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis Knihy

Nejvýznamnější román brazilského spisovatele, zakladatele moderní latinskoamerické prózy. Brás Cubas, bezvýznamný človíček prostředních názorů a průměrných vášní, dostane po smrti jedinečnou příležitost –⁠ díky autorově fantazii nepropadne zmaru, ale literární tvorbě, v níž probírá svůj prošlý život. „Posmrtné paměti jsou patrně jednou z těch vzrušivě originálních, radikálně skeptických knih, které pokaždé zapůsobí na čtenáře dojmem soukromého objevu,“ říká o románu ve své předmluvě Susan Sontagová.

Román brazilského klasika o jinošství, studiích, lásce a manželství dvou přátel s obrazem společnosti brazilského císařství a republiky ve druhé polovině 19. století, vyprávěný s lehkým humorem, vyúsťuje v překvapující drama nevěry a žárlivosti.

First published in 1899, Dom Casmurro is acknowledged as the finest achievement of the great Brazilian novelist Machado de Assis, and among the most important novels ever written in the Portuguese language.

A vibrant new translation of Machado de Assis's classic novel about a young man flush with newfound wealth, who promptly gets swindled

Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is the great Brazilian author of Philosopher or Dog? and Epitaph of a Small Winner, whose work is admired by writers as different as Salman Rushdie, Carlos Fuentes, Woody Allen and Susan Sontag. Taken from his mature period, these dazzling stories echo Poe and Gogol, anticipate Joyce, and have been compared to the writing of Chekhov, Maupassant and Henry James, yet his modern sensibility and clear-eyed humour remain utterly unique.

'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' - Salman Rushdie

Accompanied by a thorough introduction to Brazil's Machado, Machado's Brazil, these vibrant new translations of eight of Machado de Assis's best-known short stories bring nineteenth-century Brazilian society and culture to life for modern readers.

Two gentlemen standing outside a church in Rio de Janeiro see a respectable lady emerge - one of them has an unexpected, and to him inexplicable story to tell about her past life as a prostitute; a popular composer of polkas burns the midnight oil in a desperate attempt to create great classical music; a teenager finds himself caught up by the sight of the bare arms of an older woman who lives with his employer; an impoverished, lazy young man turns to the lucrative trade of catching runaway slaves; dull, monotonous Mariana has a tiff with her husband about the hat he wears to town, and decides to sing "the Marseillaise of matrimony" by going off on a trip to town herself with her more daring, flirtatious friend Sophia.These are some of the situations developed in these stories, some of the most brilliant to have been written in the nineteenth century. They echo Poe and Gogol, they anticipate Joyce, they have been compared to contemporary works by Chekhov, Maupassant, and Henry James, yet they are not quite like any of these. Anyone who has read Epitaph of a Small Winner or Dom Casmurro, his most famous novels, will want to savour these stories - those who haven't, will find them a varied and enjoyable introduction to Machado's work.