Novelist, poet, playwright, and short story writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is widely regarded as Brazil's greatest writer, although his work is still too little read outside his native country. In this first comprehensive English-language examination of Machado since Helen Caldwell's seminal 1970 study, K. David Jackson reveals Machado de Assis as an important world author, one of the inventors of literary modernism whose writings profoundly influenced some of the most celebrated authors of the twentieth century, including Jose Saramago, Carlos Fuentes, and Donald Barthelme. Jackson introduces a hitherto unknown Machado de Assis to readers, illuminating the remarkable life, work, and legacy of the genius whom Susan Sontag called "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America" and whom Allen Ginsberg hailed as "another Kafka." Philip Roth has said of him that "like Beckett, he is ironic about suffering." And Harold Bloom has remarked of Machado that "he's funny as hell."

About the Author
K. David Jackson is professor of Portuguese and director of undergraduate studies of Portuguese at Yale University. He lives in Woodbridge, CT.


Book Information
ISBN 9780300180824
Author K. David Jackson
Format Hardback
Page Count 360
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press
Weight(grams) 590g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 25mm