Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas - Machado de Assis
In "Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas," Machado de Assis innovates by presenting the narrative from the perspective of a deceased author. Brás Cubas, now deceased, recounts his memories with a mix of humor, irony and philosophical reflection, addressing themes such as the futility of life and the hypocrisy of society. This revolutionary narrative deconstructs the literary conventions of the time, offering the reader a critical and scathing vision of Brazilian society in the 19th century.
To the worm that first gnawed at the cold flesh of my corpse I dedicate these Posthumous Memoirs as a nostalgic memory.
The book's protagonist-narrator is a man from the Brazilian elite of the 19th century, who never worked and created nothing throughout his life. Once dead, he decides to relive his own existence. With his voice coming from death, Brás Cubas spares nothing or anyone from his deliciously ironic gaze. Provocative, intelligent to the highest degree and hilarious, Posthumous Memoirs – a novel that placed Brazilian literature at the level of the greatest in the world – also reveals, like few works, the darkest gears of Brazilian society.
In Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, Machado de Assis constructs the figure of a "deceased-author" and not a "deceased author" – as Brás Cubas himself well defines – as the central reason for his criticism of society, as being Distanced from the world of the living, the dead Brás Cubas destroys, through his social relations, the society of 19th century Brazil, with its vices, its parasitism and its pettiness.
