DOM Casmurro - (FSG Classics) by Machado de Assis (Paperback)

About the Book

A stunning novel by one of Brazil's greatest writers. Like other great 19th-century novels, Machado de Assis's DOM CASMURRO explores the themes of marriage and adultery. But what distinguishes Machado's novel from the realism of its contemporaries, and what makes it such a delightful discovery for English-speaking readers, is its eccentric and wildly unpredictable narrative style--a literary genius of the rarest kind.

Book Synopsis

First published in 1900, Dom Casmurro, widely considered Machado de Assis's greatest novel and a classic of Brazilian literature, is a brilliant retelling of the classic adultery tale--a sad and darkly comic novel about love and the corrosive power of jealousy.

Bento Santiago, the wildly unreliable narrator of Dom Casmurro, believes that he has been cuckolded--he suspects that his wife has cheated on him with his best friend and that her child is not his. Has Capitú, his love since childhood, really been unfaithful to him? Or is the evidence of her betrayal merely the product of a paranoid mind?

"Deftly translated, Dom Casmurro is a book full of humor, sweetness and a tender melancholy--a book that deserves to be read." - Publishers Weekly

From the Back Cover

Praise for author Machado de Assis

"[Machado de Assis] is a great ironist, a tragic comedian. In his books, in their most comic moments, he underlines the suffering by making us laugh."--Philip Roth

"Machado de Assis is a kind of miracle." --Harold Bloom

"I am astonished that a writer of such greatness does not yet occupy the place he deserves." --Susan Sontag

"Machado retrieves from Cervantes the origins of the novel as illusion, play, ambiguity and adventure."--K. David Jacks on, The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was born in Rio de Janeiro. Among his many novels are Philosopher or Dog? and Epitaph of a Small Winner.