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BRAZILIAN BILINGUAL BOOK CLUB |MACHADO DE ASSIS|ESAU and JACOB | 18Th October 2018, 18.30-21.00

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BRAZILIAN BILINGUAL BOOK CLUB |MACHADO DE ASSIS|ESAU and JACOB | 18Th October 2018, 18.30-21.00 BRAZILIAN BILINGUAL BOOK CLUB |MACHADO DE ASSIS|ESAU AND JACOB | 18th October 2018, 18.30-21.00 2018 – The year of reading Brazilian Literary Greats and unlocking the power of our minds! MACHADO DE ASSIS (1839-1908) Esaú e Jacob (1904) translated into English as Esau and Jacob (1965, 2000) Esau and Jacob: the fourth of five intertwined masterly novels. Along with The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas , Quincas Borba, Dom Casmurro and Counsellor Ayres Memorial, Machado de Assis created one of the most intricate and ingenious set of characters and plots in literature! Set in an effervescent battle ground of ideas on the abolition of slavery and 1 the future of the Empire of Brazil amidst the rumbling noises of republicanism, the drafting of new constitutions in a prescient account of future things! Discover the Cabocla Barbara, a Brazilian Sibyl, who foretells the future of greatness of the twin brothers but refers to their enmity from before birth: Pedro and Paulo re-enacting Castor and Pollux or Esau and Jacob? The reference to the second ring of Dante’s Inferno in the introductory foreword: Dico, che quando l’anima mal nata (I say, that when the spirit evil-born) brings a clue about the future through the story of the twin brothers Pedro and Paulo and their Beatrice. A Hamletian conundrum unravelling a disintegration of values, morals, and order in public and private lives. Don’t take anything for granted in this delightfully witty novel: the narrator, a retired diplomat, Counsellor Ayres, will charm you, the reader, and remind you that Fate can play unexpected chess games! And female readers will be courted and engaged in riveting conversations. DETAILS OF AVAILABLE PUBLICATIONS: ENGLISH 1965 Esau and Jacob translated by Helen Caldwell, published by University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles, CA.. Reprint 1966 Esau and Jacob translated by Helen Caldwell, published as the 1st British Commonwealth edition by Owen: London ISBN-10: 9780195108118 ISBN-13: 978-0195108118 ASIN: 0195108116 ASIN: B0027BDOSU 2000 Esau and Jacob translated by Elizabeth Lowe, published by Oxford University Press. ISBN-10: 0195108108 ISBN-13: 978-0195108101 ASIN: B007HKW8F6 PORTUGUESE 1904 - Esaú e Jacob Continues in print with various editions Free downloads available from http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/download/texto/bn000030.pdf https://digital.bbm.usp.br/bitstream/bbm/4763/1/002046_COMPLETO.pdf http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56737 SHORT HISTORY OF THE BOOK AND TRANSLATIONS Os estados de alma que daqui nasceram davam matéria a um capitulo especial, se eu não preferisse agora um salto, e ir a 1886. 0 salto é grande, mas o tempo é um tecido invisível em que se pôde bordar tudo, uma flor, um pássaro, uma dama, um castello, um túmulo. Também se pôde: bordar nada. 2 Nada em cima de invisível é a mais subtil obra deste mundo, e acaso do outro. [1904: Capitulo XXII Agora um salto] The states of the soul which were borne out this would provide enough material for a special chapter, if I did not prefer to make a leap now and go to 1886. It is a major leap, but time is an invisible fabric on which one might embroider anything: a flower, a bird, a lady, a castle, a grave. Equally one might embroider nothing. Nothing over the invisible is the most subtle work ever created in this world, and by chance in the other. [1904: Chapter 22 Now a Leap [NK] First edition, Manuscript of the Chapter one Esaú e Jacó and the second edition. The novel Esaú e Jacob begins with a prologue telling the reader how it came to be a part of a series. It tells us that seven manuscripts were found in the Counsellor Ayres’ writing desk. The first six were numbered in Roman numerals written in scarlet ink. All volumes had tightly cardboard covers, the last volume, the thickest, carried the word Last instead of a Roman numeral. The reader is told that volume seven was not a part of the Memorial, a diary which the Counsellor had written for many years. From the outset, the reader is co-opted to speculate on the reasons why the Counsellor wrote the series and why the title ‘Last’ was eventually replaced by Esaú e Jacob. The reader is drawn into the web which the narrator is about to weave. The character Counsellor Ayres also appears in the novel Counsellor Ayres Memorial or rather Counsellor Ayres Memoirs as I have argued in my post earlier this year. Our book club discussed it in February this year (https://sistemas.mre.gov.br/kitweb/datafiles/Londres/en-us/file/cul-bookclub-27- ayres.pdf). It is the fourth of five clearly intertwined masterly novels, namely, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, Quincas Borba, Dom Casmurro and Counsellor Ayres Memorial. The prologue comes under the heading ‘Advertência’, which means ‘Warning’. It is a technique which Machado de Assis uses in various novels. The first chapter is preceded by an epigram, ‘Dico, che quando l’anima mal nata’ (I say, that when the spirit evil-born). It is a line from Canto V from Inferno, the first part of the epic poem Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia ) written from c. 1308- 1320 by Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321). There are 121 chapters of varying sizes. All have very symbolic names, many of which contain references to the Bible, to mythology, theology, world history, current affairs, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth, and various classical authors. 3 Some chapters describe the act of writing in a subtle and self-deprecatory manner. The narrator or the author establishes a dialogue with the reader. Readers are also directed to future events in the narrative. On occasions the narrator adopts three asterisks to substitute for a name of a character, comments on his choice and makes a semiotic reading of the asterisk. He is clearly ahead of his time. The novel is set in the19th century whirlwind of events in Brazil. It retains its freshness and adroitness. It contains a very incisive critique of corruption and vested interests. The commentaries on the state of affairs contained in the novel continue to be relevant to the present day and applicable not only in Brazil but everywhere in the world. In addition, this novel is a major record of the debates on the abolition of slavery. Machado de Assis published various chronicles and some of the themes recur in the novel. Equally, there is much about the role of competent diplomacy and an understated appraisal of diplomatic achievements. Esau and Jacob is one element of a full set of intertwined novels and stories which the author created. Apropos, this novel also has a very relevant comment about translation. In Chapter XLV, the narrator tells us: ….o conselheiro, depois de os citar em prosa nossa, repetiu-os no próprio texto grego e os dous gêmeos sentiram-se ainda mais épicos, tão certo é que traducções não valem originaes. …after quoting the texts in our language, the counsellor repeated them in the original Greek, and the twin brothers felt even more epic, so certain it is that translations are not worth as much as the original texts. [N.K.] There are two translations of this novel. The first Esau and Jacob was translated by Helen Caldwell (1904-1987) and published by University of California Press in 1965. It was reprinted in the UK in the following year. In 2000, another Esau and Jacob translated by Elizabeth Lowe, was published by the Oxford University Press. Helen Caldwell was a scholar and Brazilianist from California. She completed the first English translation of Dom Casmurro, published in 1953. Her most famous work is Machado de Assis: The Brazilian Master and His Novels (1970). She also translated of 8 the 12 stories in The Psychiatrist, and Other Stories with William L. Grossman for the eponymous novella and three other stories in 1973. Elizabeth Lowe is the founding director of the Center for Translation Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2008-2015), and currently professor in the online M.S. in Translation at New York University. She is a specialist in translation pedagogy, with a focus on literary translation. She has translated both Brazilian and Lusophone writers, including Clarice Lispector, Euclides da Cunha, Machado de Assis, J.P. Cuenca, Antônio Lobo Antunes, and recently João de Melo. She is the author of The City in Brazilian Literature (1982), and co-author with Earl E. Fitz of Translation and the Rise of Inter-American Literature (2007). [Source: https://www.centerforthehumanities.org/programming/participants/elizabeth-lowe ] 4 SHORT BIOGRAPHY JOAQUIM MARIA MACHADO DE ASSIS (21st June 1839 – 29th September 1908) ‘Machado de Assis’ by Marc Ferrez (1843-1923) ‘Há coisas que melhor se dizem calando’ ‘Some things are better said by remaining silent’. Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis is the most celebrated classic Brazilian author, thinker and a social critic. A true man of genius, he wrote poetry, novels and short stories, plays, chronicles, translations, including a notable Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1812-1870), parliamentary reports, music scores, economic outlook articles and much more. His insights into the life and times of 19th century Brazil permeate all of his works. A classic master of Brazilian and world literature, he covertly brought and disseminated some of the leading European and universal ideas to Brazil. 5 The Cosme Velho House, no.18, Rio de Janeiro, where Machado de Assis lived from 1883-1908. The Cosme Velho Borough Residents’ Association funded this plaque. (Source of the images: Wikipedia Commons) Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis is the most celebrated classic Brazilian author, thinker and a social critic.
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