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 Rio de Janeiro some fifty years after its foundation! * one of the 71 fabulous national parks in Brazil & 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/public domain 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 Iracema 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 Brazilian literature. 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 Brazilians, 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.