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Comic philosophical novel · Medium

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas

Machado de Assis · 1881 · Brazil

A dead man writes his memoirs. Free from consequences, he looks back on his life with wit, vanity, cruelty, and evasive honesty.

Notes and Misconceptions

Machado should not be treated as a local version of someone else. The comedy is his own dry instrument.

The narrator's charm is part of the trap.

Best Path

Latin American classics, unreliable narration, satire

Reading Paths

  • Short Classics That Have Teeth

    Compact books that do more damage than their length suggests.

  • Unreliable Selves

    Narrators and protagonists who turn memory, faith, desire, illness, and charm into evasive machinery.

Tags

brazilianlatin-americansatiredead-narratorunreliable-narratorphilosophicalshort-to-medium