Pagine1839–1908 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil · also known as Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Machado
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, the grandson of freed slaves, was born in a Rio de Janeiro hillside slum, largely taught himself, and became Brazil’s greatest writer and the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. His ironic, playful novels were decades ahead of their time: The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (1881) is narrated by a dead man, and Dom Casmurro (1899) leaves readers still arguing whether Capitu was unfaithful. Susan Sontag and Philip Roth championed him in English.
Begin with Dom Casmurro.
Part of our Latin American Classics reading list — print it, email it to yourself or share it.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz · Rubén Darío · Horacio Quiroga · Gabriela Mistral · Jorge Luis Borges · Pablo Neruda · Juan Rulfo · Julio Cortázar · Gabriel García Márquez · Mario Vargas Llosa · Isabel Allende
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, the grandson of freed slaves, was born in a Rio de Janeiro hillside slum, largely taught himself, and became Brazil’s greatest writer and the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. His ironic, playful novels were decades ahead of their time: The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (1881) is narrated by a dead man, and Dom Casmurro (1899) leaves readers still arguing whether Capitu was unfaithful.
The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas is usually considered Machado de Assis’s best-known work, followed by Dom Casmurro, Quincas Borba.
Most readers start with Dom Casmurro.
Both refer to the same writer. Other spellings and names include Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Machado.
Many of Machado de Assis’s works are in the public domain; we link to free editions below.