The Alienist and Other Stories of Nineteenth-Century Brazil

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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.  

Contents:

Introduction.  1. To Be Twenty Years Old!  2. The Education of a Poser.  3. The Looking Glass.  4. Chapter on Hats.  5. A Singular Occurrence.  6. Terpsichore.  7.  Father Against Mother.  8. The Alienist.

Reviews:

"An engaging entry point for students, readers who enjoy a well-crafted short story, or anyone interested in the legacy of slave-holding society in the Western Hemisphere. I attribute the success of [t]his volume to the way Chasteen highlights points of personal identification for an English-speaking readership, especially students, and the way he frames these short stories by Machado as relevant sources for a comparative history of racial politics in Brazil and the USA. . .
    "In my evaluations of Chasteen's translations, I am drawing from student reactions to their first exposure to Machado through this volume in a course about Brazilian culture taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. In short, they loved Machado and quickly made him their own. I credit this immediate embrace with the way Chasteen has selected, ordered, and framed the collection with a young student audience in mind. He introduces Machado with selections that reflect the concerns of an educated class through the eyes of a young university student."
     —Machado de Assis em linha, The Electronic Journal of Machado Studies

"Chasteen has translated and edited seven short stories and one novella published during the period 1881-1906 by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazil's most renowned writer and social satirist of the nineteenth century.  [The] introduction. . . provides a useful, though relatively broad, snapshot of the century and historical era in which Machado de Assis lived and wrote.
    "The brief preface to each story. . . demonstrates an interest on the part of Machado de Assis in showing everyday life, popular culture, women, male power and pretensions, and the politics of the elite. . . . Intended as an accessible and affordable introduction to Brazilian literature or as an accompaniment to a course on Latin American or Brazilian history.
    "Recommended for classroom use and for those with an interest in world literature."
     —Colonial Latin American Historical Review 

"This beautifully translated selection of stories is a wonderful introduction to Brazil’s—and Latin America’s—greatest writer.  Chasteen has done us all a great service by providing this wonderful volume to introduce and entice readers into the wonders of Brazilian culture.”
     —Marshall C. Eakin, Vanderbilt University 

"Chasteen’s free translations convey the spirit of Machado’s stories; they feel like what Machado might have written in today’s English.  Chasteen’s translation of The Alienist is exceptionally good: I have never enjoyed the story as much in Portuguese as in Chasteen’s version, which captures the narrative shifts and reversals with great timing.”
     —Dain Borges, University of Chicago

About the Author:

John Charles Chasteen is Patterson Distinguished Term Professor of History, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.