Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas

De Machado De Assis

A obra é narrada pelo defunto Brás Cubas, que escreve a própria biografia a partir do túmulo (sendo, portanto, segundo o próprio, não um autor-defunto, mas o primeiro defunto-autor da história, que é caracterizado por ter morrido e depois escrito, diferente da maioria, que escreve e depois morre). Suas memórias começam com uma dedicatória que antecipa o humor negro e a ironia presente em todo o livro.

• Idioma: Português
• Editora: Paulus Editora
• Data de lançamento: 5 de set. de 2014
• ISBN: 9788534940283

Machado De Assis

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (Rio de Janeiro, 21 de junho de 1839 Rio de Janeiro, 29 de setembro de 1908) foi um escritor brasileiro, considerado por muitos críticos, estudiosos, escritores e leitores o maior nome da literatura brasileira.

Avaliações de Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas

[fpdc_1 · Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas]

One of the great classics of 19th century literature. The memoirs of, Brás Cubas, a mediocre bougeois in late 1800's Rio de Janeiro, starts with the dedication of the deceased protagonist to the ``worm that first gnawed the cold flesh of my corpse'', and continues through one hundred and sixty short chapters written with a biting subtle irony.

[michaelm42071 · Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas]

The narrator, citing the advantages of such an arrangement (no fear of retribution for complete honesty, for instance), tells his story from beyond the grave, beginning just before his death, as he is distracted from thinking about his invention of marvelous poultice or plaster that cures depression, as his former mistress Virgilia comes to visit him. After his death and funeral (eleven people attending), he goes back to the beginning of his life and tells the story chronologically, in 160 chapters, some as short as one sentence (instructing the reader to insert that sentence in a previous chapter, or using the sentence to assert that he has written a completely superfluous chapter). The method he admits is adopted from Sterne and Xavier de Maistre, and the results are frequent digressions, a running commentary and address to the reader, a chapter composed only of punctuated straight lines, another of ellipses (or just dots), and another consisting solely of a five-line epitaph for the girl who died just before she was about to marry the narrator. He is less interesting for me than the other characters, including Lobo Neves the husband whom he is cuckolding, his brother-in-law Cotrim, and the garrulous, Panglossian and eventually mad Quincas Borbas, philosopher of “Humanitism,” which excuses the sort of behavior (by Lobo Neves, Cotrim, and the narrator himself) the book satirizes by saying whatever “human” is all right.The narrator is a self-declared failure whose fiancée drops him for a more successful politician (Lobo Neves, who refuses a governorship because the grant was written on a date he considers unlucky), who never achieves his ambition of becoming a minister of state, who dies a bachelor after a series of humiliating or otherwise disastrous love affairs, and who shows himself incapable of getting beyond his selfishness at every point. His defense is a blanket condemnation of the world he milked for every pleasure it offered, as he congratulates himself for having no progeny to leave “the legacy of our misery.”Machado lacks the playfulness of Sterne or de Maistre. He does do a job on the expectations of both romantic and realistic fiction, but perhaps only within a regional theatre. He can also claim to have a head start on magical realism. But his character’s autobiography is largely dreary.

[jimmychanga · Nota: 3 de 5 estrelas]

If you stripped away the ahead-of-its-time narrative tics, the clever self-reflexive games, the subversive style, what you're left with is the heart of this book: the voice.

I was less impressed with the stylistic trickery (and enough has been said about that, just read the other Goodreads reviews) than with the voice: often boastful, he still allows you to see all his faults and weaknesses. And though you see all his faults and weaknesses, he still comes across as extremely likeable. Though he slyly mocks himself and those around him, he never comes across as having any kind of social or political agenda. The voice is believable despite being a multitude of things: delusional, prideful, petty, insightful, pitiful, philosophical, mocking, cynical, naive, weary, serious etc.

The story is basically one of impotence and mediocrity. Bras Cubas makes headway halfheartedly in all arenas of life, never fully achieving anything in the conventional sense that society deems as such. Though he was always at the brink of each of these accomplishments, he never acheives them: marriage, children, illustrious career. And we're better off for it, as readers, because we see that Bras Cubas really doesn't care for these societal expectations, much like this book doesn't care for fulfilling the narrative expectations of its readers.

The book mirrors this mindframe: it goes in a million different directions, imparting various observations along the way without any kind of central thrust. I don't mean this in a bad way; in fact, its aimlessness is one of the things I liked most about it. There's an openness to it where it doesn't feel too controlled, too one-minded, and this is refreshing.

On the negative side, it never feels completely satisfying either. There are moments of deep insight, and moments of humor, but a kind of constant withdrawal where it never reaches the heights of either. The wording was sometimes clunky too, but this could have been due to the translation. Also, the narrative devices he employs should be nothing new or shocking to a reader in the year 2011, though at the time I can see how it was. But since I'm reading it now and not in 1880, I felt a little annoyed that I was constantly expected to react to certain sections as if I were a maiden aunt (to borrow a phrasing from Manny) scandalized by its unconventional sexy form. To its credit, the cleverness is totally in line with the character's voice, so it didn't feel tacked-on, just slightly tacky in this day and age.

PS - the preface by Enylton de Sa Rego is complete rubbish. Skip it. I haven't finished reading the Afterword by Gilberto Pinheiro Passos, but so far it's kinda rubbish too.

[schmechi · Nota: 3 de 5 estrelas]

In Machado de Assis' berühmtesten Roman berichtet der Ich-Erzähler Brás Cubas aus dem Jenseits in 160 kurzen Kapiteln über sein Leben im Rio de Janeiro des 19. Jahrunderts. Es sind die Memoiren eines wohlhabenden Müßiggängers, der sein Leben lang Arbeit und Verantwortung scheute und so sein irdisches Dasein ohne große Widerstände und Höhepunkte verlebte.Machado de Assis gilt aufgrund dieses Werks als Initiator des brasilianischen Realismus und prägende Gestalt der brasilianischen Literatur. Diese Huldigungen der Kritik kann ich nur teilweise nachvollziehen, denn zu viele Kapitel verwirren den Leser mit unstimmigen philosophischen Betrachtungen. Hinzu kommt, dass manche der zahlreich verwendeten Allegorien ebenso wie Verweise auf Literatur und Mytholgie reichlich plump wirken.Einzelne Kapitel überzeugen hingegen mit pointiertem Witz, Weisheit und Beobachtungsgabe. Lesenswert ist der Roman letztlich auch aufgrund seiner Schilderungen Rio de Janeiros im 19. Jahrhundert.

[a_forester-1 · Nota: 5 de 5 estrelas]

I admit I didn't like it at first, but when I read many many articles about it, I finally caught on to why it is good and delighted in reading it. Original, way ahead of its time, it seemed so current, so typical of modern humour that I didn't see what was special about it. What is special is that it was written in 1880 by a poor mulatto man in Brazil who was a shrewd observer of society. It is funny and understandable that he influenced Wood Allen, Philip Roth, Susan Sontag and a host of other creative people.

[riida_3 · Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas]

witty, funny, brisk, ingenious, and weirdly relatable. i did not quite like the main character's character. he's self-centered and strikes me as lazy and borderline delusional. but he feels like a very real person living in his times. the social commentaries on slavery and the morality of the privileged were almost subtle, but always striking. i think it deserves a more critical reading than i did.

[hhornblower_3 · Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Such fun commentary on society that has many similarities to society today.

[albertgoldfain · Nota: 3 de 5 estrelas]

A clever way to tell a story, but I never really related to Bras Cubas. I am probably missing quite a bit in translation or by not unravelling the copious endnotes, but there just wasn't enough of a hook to make me go deeper here.

[colligan · Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas]

An excellent read, both humorous and insightful. A wonderful tale told in a style that is engaging, witty, and a pleasure to read.

[hemlokgang · Nota: 5 de 5 estrelas]

What a romp! Who new a posthumous memoir could be so wonderful? Our narrator, Bras Cubas, the dead one, finally makes his mark in the world by inventing the posthumous memoir. According to Susan Sontag, in the introduction, this occurs in counterpoint to "Tristram Shandy" speaking to his audience before birth. (I need to read that novel) Finally, Cubas can heave his eternal sigh of relief by achieving a worthy epitaph. His life was pretty typical, full of love, envy, profound delusions, a touch of intrigue, a variety of failures, petty maneuvering, and embarrassing moments. So what the heck, is it so much to ask for an eternal sigh of relief now and then? I think not!