Brazilian Tales | Page 6

Brazilian literature, so might such a novel achieve
preeminence in our own.

Ferrero is quite right in indicating the great non-literary importance of
the novel, though not all readers will agree with him as to the excessive
vagueness of the end. Hardly any other type of ending would have
befitted a novel that treats of transition, of a landscape that dazzles and
enthralls, of possibilities that founder, not through the malignance of
fate, but through the stupidity of man. There is an epic swirl to the
finale that reminds one of the disappearance of an ancient deity in a
pillar of dust. For an uncommon man like Milkau an uncommon end
was called for. Numerous questions are touched upon in the course of
the leisurely narrative, everywhere opening up new vistas of thought;
for Aranha is philosophically, critically inclined; his training is
cosmopolitan, as his life has been; he knows the great Germans,
Scandinavians, Belgians and Russians; his native exuberance has been
tempered by a serenity that is the product of European influence. He is
some fifty-two years of age, has served his nation at Christiania as
minister, at the Hague, and as leader in the Allied cause. He is,
therefore, an acknowledged and proven spokesman. The author of
Canaan has done other things, among which this book, which has long
been known in French and Spanish, stands out as a document that
marks an epoch in Brazilian history as well as a stage in Brazilian
literature. Whether it is "the" great American novel is of interest only to
literary politicians and pigeon-holers; it is "a" great novel, whether of
America or Europe, and that suffices for the lover of belles lettres.
III.
In considering the work of such writers as these and the authors
represented in this little pioneer volume one should bear continually in
mind the many handicaps under which authorship labors in Portuguese
and Spanish America: a small reading public, lack of publishers,
widespread prevalence of illiteracy, instability of politics. Under the
circumstances it is not so much to be wondered at that the best work is
of such a high average as that it was done at all. For in nations where
education is so limited and illiteracy so prevalent the manifold
functions which in more highly developed nations are performed by
many are perforce done by a few. Hence the spectacle in the new
Spanish and Portuguese world, as in the old, of men and women who

are at once journalists, novelists, dramatists, politicians, soldiers, poets
and what not else. Such a versatility, often joined to a literary prolixity,
no doubt serves to lower the artistic worth of works produced under
such conditions.
In connection with the special character of the tales included in the
present sample of modern Brazilian short stories,--particularly those by
Machado de Assis and Medeiros e Albuquerque--it is interesting to
keep in mind the popularity of Poe and Hawthorne in South America.
The introspection of these men, as of de Maupassant and kindred spirits,
appeals to a like characteristic of the Brazilians. Such inner seeking,
however, such preoccupation with psychological problems, does not
often, in these writers, reach the point or morbidity which we have
become accustomed to expect in the novels and tales of the Russians.
Stories like The Attendant's Confession are written with a refinement of
thought as well as of language. They are not, as so much of Brazilian
literature must perforce seem to the stranger's mind, exotic. They
belong to the letters of the world by virtue of the human appeal of the
subject and the mastery of their treatment.
Chief among the writers here represented stands Joaquim Maria
Machado de Assis. (1839-1908). Born in Rio de Janeiro of poor parents
he was early beset with difficulties. He soon found his way into
surroundings where his literary tastes were awakened and where he
came into contact with some of the leading spirits of the day. The noted
literary historians of his country, Sylvio Roméro and Joao Ribeiro (in
their Compendio de Historia da Litteratura Brazileira) find the writing
of his first period of little value. The next decade, from his thirtieth to
his fortieth year, is called transitional. With the year 1879, however,
Machado de Assis began a long phase of maturity that was to last for
thirty years. It was during this fruitful period that Memorias Postumas
de Braz Cubas, Quincas Borbas, Historias Sem Data, Dom Casmurro,
Varias Historias and other notable works were produced. The three
tales by Machado de Assis in this volume are translated from his Varias
Historias. That same bitter-sweet philosophy and gracious, if
penetrating, irony which inform these tales are characteristic of his
larger romances. Four volumes of poetry sustain his reputation as poet.

He is found, by Roméro and Ribeiro, to be very