The writer whose work is the foundation on which the South American boom was built.'The kind of humour that makes skulls smile' Salman Rushdie
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was born and lived his whole life in Rio de Janeiro. The son of poor parents, and mulatto, he worked his way to a successful career as a civil servant and a writer. He was revered (though not understood) in his lifetime, and was unanimously elected President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters when it was founded in 1896. He is still universally regarded as the greatest Brazilian writer. John Gledson is Professor Emeritus of Brazilian Studies at the University of Liverpool. He has produced Brazilian editions of Machado de Assis's stories and newspaper columns, and is also the translator of his novel Dom Casmurro (Oxford University Press, 1997), along with novels by Milton Hatoum and critical works by Roberto Schwarz, among others.
PRAISE FOR MACHADO DE ASSIS 'He was one of the few writers who not only received a state funeral, but actually deserved it...He is still laughing at us from six feet down, and cordially invites us to join him, both in his laughter and his grave. Enjoy his books and, if you go to Rio, place a potato on his tomb.' Louis de Bernieres 'Machado de Assis was a literary force, transcending nationality and language, comparable certainly to Flaubert, Hardy, or James.' New York Times Book Review 'No satirist, not even Swift, is less merciful in his exposure of the pretentiousness and the hypocrisy that lurk in the average good man and woman. Machado, in his deceptive way, is terrifying.' New Republic
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