BOOK CLUB | JOSÉ DE ALENCAR | O GUARANY |21TH JULY, 6.30-9 PM · JOSÉ DE ALENCAR (1829-1877)

O Guarany (Romance brasileiro) (1857) translated into English as

The Guarany (1893)

This summer escape to the idyllic Serra dos Orgãos* in the Atlantic Forest, evoking Shakespeare’s cavern in Macbeth or Byron’s dream, Dryden’s or Rousseau’s noble savage … in some fifty years after its foundation! * one of the 71 fabulous national parks in & one of the oldest, created in 1939.

1820s Serra dos Orgãos by Johann M. Rugendas (1802-1858) | Serra dos Órgãos seen from Teresópolis, 1885 by Johann Georg Grimm (1846–1887) from Enciclopedia Itaú Cultural/ The most Brazilian soul, José de Alencar, conjured a delightful scenario for a four-part thriller including a lost treasure hoard, a lord of a manor, a super villain, tender love and vicious lust, a very Brazilian flood myth and much more!

And what does the condottiere Loredano or Ângelo di Luca, a former Carmelite friar, perhaps an infamous spy, get up to in this gripping tale?

Teenagers are said to have had many a crush on the main character(s)!

A successful multi-media precursor before multi-media was even invented: opera, films, cartoons, TV series, games and more!

A reminder for the Brazilian Bilingual Book Club members, who read Mário de Andrade’s Macunaíma(1928), last year: (i) M. de Andrade dedicated his novel to the ‘Pai de Mutum’ - José de Alencar & (ii) notice similarities in the magical fantastic ending of both novels.

DETAILS OF AVAILABLE PUBLICATIONS:

ENGLISH Free download (1893) The Guarany translated by James W. Hawes (full text) http://www.literaturabrasileira.ufsc.br/_documents/0006-03108.html or from the original translation published in the Overland monthly and Out West magazine (four parts): The Guarany (From the Portuguese of José Martiniano de Alencar), Part I, Chapters XIII-XV [Volume 21, Issue 123, Mar 1893; pp. 319-330] by Hawes, James W. in Overland monthly and Out West magazine. Article URL: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/ahj1472.2-21.123/325 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/ahj1472.2-21.121?node=ahj1472.2- 21.121:21&view=text&seq=87&size=100

PORTUGUESE

Free downloads

O Guarani (originalmente: O Guarany - Romance Brasileiro) 1857 by José de Alencar (1829-1877) – free download from: http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/download/texto/bv000135.pdf http://objdigital.bn.br/Acervo_Digital/Livros_eletronicos/o_guarani.pdf or ASIN: B00849C9LM

The novel continues in print in Brazil with various editions available in Brazil. E.g. ISBN-10: 1273338898 ISBN-13: 978-1273338892 ASIN: B01DCDN0TO

SHORT HISTORY OF THE BOOK AND TRANSLATIONS

José de Alencar wrote various chronicles under the title Ao Correr da Pena for Correio Mercantil (3rd Sep 1854 to 8th Jul 1855) and also for Diário do Rio de Janeiro (7th Oct to 25th Nov 1855). The chronicles have an immense value as a critical review of various facets of 19th century socio-cultural life in Rio de Janeiro as well as main contemporary world events. Contrary to various impressions of ‘periphery’, Rio de Janeiro was at the time one of the most important cultural hubs in the Americas and, indeed, in the world. This could be a reason that it captured the imagination of so many. A careful reading of 19th and early 20th c. chronicles provides abundant evidence and insight into the effervescence and exchange of ideas in all areas of human knowledge.

In addition, Alencar’s chronicles include various clues and thoughts for his subsequent works, which appear in embryonic form.This is the case of O Guarany. In his chronicle of 21st January 1855, reflecting upon the year starting in Rio de Janeiro (River of January) and recalling events and characters of the history of the city and of Brazil. He reflects on history as a record of human development, as a cradle of every nation or people. He alludes to a history dating back 300 years in Brazil including his ‘vision’ for the future novel. He states that the idea of setting his history (i.e., historical novel) was to place a major historical figure against a luminous background of a fantastic picture adding, ‘Era uma visão como o sonho de Byron, como uma cena da gruta no Macbeth de Shakespeare.’ [It was a vision like Byron’s dream or as a scene of the cavern in Shakespeare’s Macbeth NK].

Lord Byron’s ‘Dream’ 1827 by Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (1793–1865 ) - Tate | Sir Joshua Reynolds: Macbeth, Act 4 Sc 1. A dark cave, Macbeth, Hecate, | Three witches and apparitions 1802, engraved by Robert Thew One could pinpoint much congruence between the 21st Jan 1855 chronicle and the novel O Guarany specifically. The fact is that on 1st January 1857, the first chapter of the novel is published as a feuilleton in the oldest newspaper Diário do Rio de Janeiro (founded in 1821) and by the end of the year it is published in book format. Since then it has had numerous reprints with covers showing how it has been interpreted since then.

It is a historical novel and the author intersperses various references to historical events and figures and authors. In addition, he refers to indigenous languages and myths, particularly the local creation myths and deities. Book club members, who read last year, will recall the author’s encyclopaedic knowledge of plants and their uses. The short glossary, which appears at the end of the novel, continues to be a relevant source. The author refers to the poisons that the indigenous people made of plants such curare (Strychnos toxifera) which continues in use in modern medicine and the poison made of various aquatic plants – bororé (entry in 1873 botanical dictionary, see details bellow): Curare - ‘alkaloid family of organic compounds, derivatives of which are used in modern medicine primarily as skeletal muscle relaxants, being administered concomitantly with general anesthesia for certain types of surgeries, particularly those of the chest and the abdomen. Curare is of botanical origin; its sources include various tropical American plants (primarily Chondrodendron species of the family Menispermaceae and Strychnos species of the family Loganiaceae). Crude preparations of curare have long been used

Page from (1873) Diccionario de botanica brasileira; ou, Compendio dos vegetaes do Brasil, tanto indigenas como acclimados, revista por uma commissão da Sociedade Vellosiana, e approvada pela faculdade de medicina da corte ... Coordenado e redigido em grande parte sobre os manuscriptos do Dr. Arruda Camara, por Joaquim de Almeida Pinto, e mandado imprimir por sen irmão O. Bach. Z. d'Almeida Pinto.

The author uses the ancient indigenous flood myth, the Brazilian Noah - Tamandaré (or Aré) and creates a multi-layered references to it in earlier . In 1870, the notable Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836 — 1896) wrote an opera O Guarani, based on the novel, which premiered at Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 19th March 1870. Antônio Scalvini (1835 - 1881), a librettist and writer wrote the libretto Il Guarany in Italian: Il Guarany. Opera- ballo in quattro atti. Posta in musica dal maestro Cav. A. Carlos Gomes. [A libretto. By Antonio Scalvini. Based on the novel by J. M. de Alencar.]

The British Library in London holds a copy of the libretto in English: Il Guarany; a lyric drama in four acts, the English translation by Thomas J. Williams. The music by A. Carlos Gomez [sic]. As represented at the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden. Antonio Scalvini [London] : Printed and published for the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden, by J. Miles & Co ... , [1872].

The opera opening became known throughout Brazil as it was played as theme for the radio programme A Voz do Brasil.

On 12th June, the BBC Radio 3 broadcast a programme about Carlos Gomes: Antonio Carlos Gomes, the Brazilian Who Conquered La Scala, which makes reference to his most famous opera, O Guarani http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07f6mh8

The novel was also adapted to the cinema with various versions since 1920s and there are early adaptations to cartoons, the first of which is the 1937 is by Francisco Acquarone*(1898-1954) published by the newspaper Correio Universal.

* Further details about Francisco Acquarone (in Portuguese) available from: http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/pessoa713/francisco-acquarone

In 1893, a translation into English appeared by James W. Hawes published in four issues of the Overland monthly and Out West magazine.

The translation comes with the following very informative introduction considering that the fine magazine Overland Monthly, founded in 1868 (by Anton Roman, a Bavarian-born bookseller who moved to California during the Gold Rush), which published some of the greatest US authors and was edited by Bret Harte.

THE GUARANY. FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF JOSÉ MARTINIANO DE ALENCAR.

[Many: books have been printed in America, from those of Mayne Reid and yet earlier writers, to that of Mrs. Alice Wellington Rollins, giving the impressions of travelers in Brazil, though even these chiefly confine themselves to the neighborhood of Rio and the course of the Amazon. But very few books have been published in English written by , or giving any view of their life as seen from within. This is the OVERLAND’S warrant for giving space to a translation of probably the most popular of Brazilian stories. How little Brazilian literature is known to the English speaking world is shown by the fact that in none of the American or English cyclopaedia or biographical dictionaries, save Appleton’s Annual Cyclopaedia for 1877 (p.591), and Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography (in the latter more briefly and with a misspelled name), is mentioned at all the most shining light of Brazilian letters, José Martiniano de Alencar. He was the son of a priest, and was born in Ceará, in 1829,was educated for the law at São Paulo, and established himself at Rio, where he gained distinction as a jurist and contributor to the journals of the day. He was in 1868 elected deputy from Ceará, and continued such to the end of his life, in 1877, at one time in the Government as Minister of Justice, but more often in the opposition. As deputy he spoke seldom, but with great effect. His principal works are a poem, “Iracema”, and two romances, “” and “The Guarany”. The latter has been translated into German, and an opera founded on it has been played in New York. It has never

There is no extant information about the translator - only his name appearing, thus, raising the possibly that it is either a pen name or an unknown person; neither is it clear whether he is American or not. Many Brazilian biographies do not list the translation but there is a compiled version that is free to download from the internet.

BIOGRAPHY

JOSÉ MARTINIANO DE ALENCAR JÚNIOR (1829-1877)

José Martiano de Alencar’s legacy remains invaluable to this date; his oeuvre is a testimony of his aspiration to ‘brazilianize’ the Brazilian Literature. He can be credited with the creation of the Brazilian literature, and by the same token, with forging a national identity and delving into mythmaking, nation building, mixing of races and recovering various aspects of the history of the whole country. For him, the Brazilian literature similarly to the Brazilian nation is independent from Portugal but heir to the significant achievements of the Portuguese people. Ideas of national identity had been developing and effervescing following the independence of Brazil in 1822. Significantly, those debates echoed those, which had been unravelling throughout 19th Europe. Various commentators argue that his works represent the spirit, heart and soul of Brazilians.

He wrote the so-called ‘indianist’, urban and psychological, regional and historical novels and much more. Furthermore, his writings introduce a novelty, a fictionalization of history, as the narratives about the native indigenous peoples of Brazil that existed at the time were those of either missionaries or adventurers. José de Alencar identified this lacuna and set out to write from the standpoint of a citizen of the young nation, Brazil.

Considering the relevance and breadth of his oeuvre for the intellectual history of Brazil, it is rather disappointing that it has been relatively neglected. It could be argued that the current limited scholarship is a reflection of the bias as he became best known for the label ‘indianist’. The fact is that his oeuvre represents a limitless source of appraisal of the emerging institutions in the first century of the independence of Brazil and the all-pervading sense of Brazilianness. His works contain an in-depth critical analyses of those institutions and the people that led them, ruthlessly pointing out failures, such as corruption, in them.

José de Alencar was born in the town of Messejana in the State of Ceará on 1st May 1829 and his family moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1830 as his father, formerly a governor of Ceará, became a senator and had to move to the capital to pursue his political career. During his childhood and teenage years, José de Alencar was known as ‘Cazuza’.

He read law (in São Paulo with one year in Olinda). He returned to Rio de Janeiro practicing as a talented lawyer specializing in various legal matters (e.g. habeas corpus, democratic representation, constitutional affairs, electoral reform, abolition of slavery, etc). He was a voracious reader from an early age and read J. Stuart Mill and various European and universal authors.

J. de Alencar was a founder member of the Brazilian Bar Association in 1843 and served as the Minister for Justice (1868–70) during the reign of Dom Pedro II and resigned following a disagreement with the Emperor. This caused a great deal of resentment in the author considering the significant contributions he had made. He also served as a deputy. The author returned to his law office and also developed various activities as a journalist, playwright, linguist/philologist, ethnographer and historian.

As a journalist, he would become involved in various controversies. Under the pen name Ig, he wrote a fierce criticism in Cartas sobre a Confederação dos Tamoios in the Rio de Janeiro daily newspaper regarding the 1856 epic poem Confederação dos Tamoios by Domingos Gonçalves de Magalhães, Viscount of Araguaia (1811-1882), a favourite of the Emperor Dom Pedro II. Alencar produced a critique of the contemporary romantics advancing his own literary and aesthetic theory. Often engaging in polemics, particularly through the feuilleton articles and chronicles (Ao correr da pena) for Correio Mercantil from 1854 and, later a series of controversial letters, under the pen name Erasmo (inspired by Desiderius Erasmus), Letters to the Emperor and Letters to the People (nation); to the Viscount of Itaboraí on the Financial Crisis, to the Marquis of Olinda and the New Political Letters to the Emperor highlighting failures to deal with various topical issues of institutions. Following the publication of the first series, the real name of Erasmo was uncovered but he continued to use it in that series.

His works for theatre are equally relevant. He wrote plays and also an operetta A Noite de São João (The Eve of the Feast of St John). Some of his plays came under the scrutiny of the censor instigating a debate about the state of the Brazilian literature. His abolitionist views are present in several plays, including Mãe (‘Mother’, 1860). The Jesuit is a play that contains a severe critique of the role of the Jesuits in Brazil. A theatre named after him was conceived of at the end of the 19th century, the Theatro José de Alencar in , capital of Ceará, located at the square that carries the name of the author as well, a historic listed building inaugurated in 1910, which has become an arts centre.

José de Alencar collected oral poetry and songs in the northeast known under the title O nosso cancioneiro, a series of letters and commentaries sent to in 1874. Luís da Câmara Cascudo (1898 —1986), the notable anthropologist and ethnographer was the first to regard O nosso cancioneiro as an invaluable primary source of Brazilian north-eastern folklore and ethnography.

Alencar argued that he was writing in the Brazilian language. He even outlined a grammar for , which reveals significant knowledge of contemporary ideas on grammatical theory.

Iracema, an anagram of America, is a paradigm in Brazilian novel writing. Machado de Assis, his contemporary, hailed it as a masterpiece in January 1866. Notably, the Brazilian modernists would revisit his works and read them critically using various components of José de Alencar’s original ideas, particularly in the context of the 1922 Week of Modern Art. There are various confluences, for instance, in the characters and plot of Mário de Andrade’s Macunaíma and José de Alencar’s Iracema and O Guarany. Oswald de Andrade (1890-1954) refers to Iracema in his 1928 Manifesto Antropófago.

José de Alencar married Georgina Augusta Cochrane in 1864. She was the daughter of a wealthy businessman and homeopathic doctor, Dr Thomas Cochrane (cousin of Lord Cochrane) that had published a very popular book on Homeopathy (six editions from 1849: Medicina Doméstica Homoeopathica ou Guia da Arte de Curar Homeoepathicamente ) and was developing railways and created the tram company Carris de Ferro in Rio de Janeiro in 1859, subsequently taken over by the Baron of Mauá. José and Georgina had six children. Mario Cochrane de Alencar (1872 –1925) followed in the footsteps of his father and remained a loyal friend of Machado de Assis. Augusto Cochrane de Alencar (1865-1827) was a diplomat and politician, served as an interim foreign minister (1919) and ambassador of Brazil to the United States.

José de Alencar’s life was relatively short. In 1876, Alencar travelled with his wife and six children to Europe with a plan to stay for two years in order to recover his health. He had been suffering from tuberculosis. They visited England, France and Portugal but returned to Brazil eight months into their trip as Alencar’s health began to deteriorate. He passed away on 12th December 1877.

List of Main works:

Novels: Cinco Minutos (1856); (1857); O Guarani (1857); Lucíola (1862); Diva (1864); Iracema (1865); (1865 — 1866); O Gaúcho (1870); (1870); O Tronco do Ipê (1871); (1871 — 1873); (1871); Sonhos d’Ouro (1872); Alfarrábios (1873); Ubirajara (1874); (1875); (1875); Encarnação (1893 — posthumous)

Theatre plays: O Crédito (1857); Verso e Reverso (1857); O Demônio Familiar (1857); As Asas de um Anjo (1858); Mãe (1860); A Expiação (1867); O Jesuíta (1875)

Chronicles: Ao Correr da Pena (1874)

Autobiography: Como e Por Que sou Romancista (1873)

Critical and other writings: Cartas sobre A Confederação dos Tamoios (1856); Cartas Políticas de Erasmo (1865 — 1866); O Sistema Representativo (1866)

Further details and websites (in Portuguese):

• José de Alencar was a Patron of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (Chair 23): http://www.academia.org.br/abl/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?sid=239 • There is a museum and cultural centre dedicated to the author – Casa José de Alencar (the former home of author’s father) in Messejena and some of his works can be seen at http://www.cja.ufc.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45& Itemid=28 • Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural de Arte e Cultura Brasileiras: http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/pessoa3332/jose-de- alencar

• Most of his works are available for free download from the Brazilian National Library: http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/pesquisa/PesquisaObraForm.do?select_actio n=&co_autor=71

Attendance is free, but booking is essential: [email protected]

©Nadia Kerecuk Convenor of the © Brazilian Bilingual Book Club