2018 – The year of reading Brazilian Literary Greats & unlocking the power of our minds! #LiteraryGreatsBRAZIL #ReadBRAZILIT BRAZILIAN BILINGUAL BOOK CLUB|G.M. (JOSÉ DE ALENCAR (1829-1877)| SENHORA – PERFIL DE MULHER| 18th January 2018 6.30-9 PM YEAR FOUR of the Brazilian Bilingual Book Club – Embassy of Brazil in London 2018- the year of #LiteraryGreatsBRAZIL #ReadBRAZILIT Senhora -Perfil De Mulher (1875) translated as SENHORA - PROFILE OF A WOMAN (1994) A riveting tale of how a woman ends up buying a husband & a beguiling love story, too! 1 2018 – The year of reading Brazilian Literary Greats & unlocking the power of our minds! #LiteraryGreatsBRAZIL #ReadBRAZILIT A masterly early Brazilian psychological novel, with a very 21st century feel, exploring the meaning of marriage … as a commercial venture & suitably convenient arrangement. Appearances are deceptive as Aurora shows off her trophy husband during her promenades in fashion-conscious Rio de Janeiro. Before you notice, you will have been drawn into the evolving mind games with vivid background ‘photographs’ of the landscapes particularly of souls/minds. Sheer pleasure in the act of looking! Masterly storytelling, from the pen of the most Brazilian of souls, debating timeless moral and ethical themes in the lifespan of human relationships in their multiple guises and metamorphoses. Intertextual references abound: Shakespearean drama, English novel traditions, Sir Walter Scott, Feuillet’s Monsieur Camors-type character construction, Byronian poetry, G. Sandian morality, Balzacian philosophy, Gérard de Nerval’s Aurélia & Camors, Machado de Assis (Ressureição, Contos Fluminenses) and more metamorphosed into a delightful, discreetly erotic, and thought-provoking Fluminense (=Brazilian) novel! DETAILS OF AVAILABLE PUBLICATIONS: ENGLISH Senhora Profile of a Woman (1994) translated by Catarina Feldmann Edinger ISBN-10: 029270450X ISBN-13: 978-0292704503 PORTUGUESE 1875 Senhora – Perfil de Mulher Various editions available in Brazil Free download from: First part: https://digital.bbm.usp.br/bitstream/bbm/4646/1/001813-1_COMPLETO.pdf Second part: https://digital.bbm.usp.br/bitstream/bbm/4645/1/001813-2_COMPLETO.pdf or http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/download/texto/bv000139.pdf SHORT HISTORY OF THE BOOK AND TRANSLATION Senhora -Perfil de Mulher is one of the late novels, published in June/July 1875 and the third of a trilogy signed under one of the author’s pennames ‘G.M.’ , which has the appendix ‘Profile of a Woman’ after the name of the woman character in the title. 2 2018 – The year of reading Brazilian Literary Greats & unlocking the power of our minds! #LiteraryGreatsBRAZIL #ReadBRAZILIT Lucíola was published in 1862, Diva in 1864. The latter two carry the name of the main character but the last one is entitled ‘Senhora’ meaning ‘Mrs., Lady, Ma’am’ and the reader soon finds out that the name of the lady of the third novel – Aurélia Camargo. The first name of the main character is Aurélia and evokes references to classical literature. From the Latin family name Aurelius, derived from the Latin aureus (from aurum, gold) which means ‘golden’. A number of minor early saints had this name (e.g. Aurelia of Strasburg (4th century), Aurelia of Regensburg (died 1027, Catholic saint)) had this name because of the meaning ‘golden’ and not as a reference to the Latin family. Also, the mother of mother of Julius Caesar (100 BC-44 BC) was Aurelia Cotta (120 BC-54 BC). There are various extant editions of the 1875 publication of Senhora by the leading publishing house and bookshop at the time - B.L. Garnier, founded in1844 and operated until 1936. The front cover also tells us that the publisher was the Publisher- Editor of the Historical Institute (located at Rua do Ouvidor 69, Rio de Janeiro). Originally, the novel appeared two volumes. The first volume carries a curious note to reader at the end of Volume one. It states that Senhora and the preceding two novels attributed to the author (G.M.) are not his own – the alleged author is but an editor of a story to which he became privy thanks to its main ‘actors’ and that it is a true story. A hint perhaps that it is based on some true characters. Equally, he elaborates on the heightened expressive language, which he thought of toning it down, but gave up as he did not think he should remove the hues, which the colourist had included initially. He concludes the woman stoutly resists all seductions and impulses of her own passions and does not fall prey to sensations and that, in fact she embodies the heroism of virtue in her noble stance. It is signed as ‘J. de AL.’ It seems that this note to the reader creates an intermission foreshadowing nuances of the forthcoming parts. It seems to add an element of playfulness – a sort of game- playing with the reader, and very modern, reminding us of Machado de Assis. Notably, it hints at possible real-life story on which the novel could have been based, which has been overlooked in Brazilian literary commentary. It should be noted that the translation into English places the note to the reader at the beginning of the novel and, by the same token, misses some of the literary devices aptly used by José de Alencar. In the second volume, after the end, we find an additional eight-page Note (pages 241-8) with a preamble which tells us that the feuilleton of Jornal do Commercio (founded in 1824, the oldest Portuguese language newspaper in Latin America, ceased paper publications in 2016) had published two witty letters signed by a Paula, a name of a woman. Following the publication of Paula’s letters, a friend of hers (a woman as well) produced an answer discussing the book and making remarks about its content. 3 2018 – The year of reading Brazilian Literary Greats & unlocking the power of our minds! #LiteraryGreatsBRAZIL #ReadBRAZILIT It comments that ‘as studies of literary criticism are rare amongst us, without disparaging anyone, we reproduce the letter so that the readers can judge it for themselves.’ O folhetim do Jornal do Commercio, escripto por uma penna elegante inseriu a propósito deste romance duas espirituosas cartas assignadas com o nome feminino de Paula. Logo depois appareceu na mesma folha uma amiga da escriptora, a discutir as observações e reparos contidos naquellas cartas acerca do livro. Como sejam raros entre nós os estudos de critica litteraria, sem fermento de despeito, aqui transcrevemos essa carta afim de que o leitor julgue por si da procedência das censuras. The letter is fascinating. The friend tells Paula de Almeida in the fashionable Laranjeiras borough about a visit to the Itamaraty cascade, where Luiza had showed Paula’s two letters and how the group discussed the novel. This reminds us of social media chatter in our days, but the letter contains various relevant points including discussions of other authors and their works. As the writer of the reply had not read the novel before, the group seemingly asked her to write their comments on their behalf. She writes from Petrópolis on 2nd May. A reference to some woman literary critic perhaps? By discussing the construction of the souls of characters, which rendered in 21st century terminology- would be read as ‘minds, mentality’ (soul as commonly translated from the French esprit or Slavovic дух/душа in 19th c. meant wit, intellect, manner of 4 2018 – The year of reading Brazilian Literary Greats & unlocking the power of our minds! #LiteraryGreatsBRAZIL #ReadBRAZILIT thinking/reasoning), thus the reference to psychological novel makes sense as it was also the terminology used in the incipient science of psychology in the second half of the 19th century. The translator into English missed this, and muddled it with ‘psychic’ … The letter writer adds a comment on how characters could be constructed – dramatic as in Shakespeare or philosophical as in Balzac but goes on to remind Paula of how Octave analogy, which appears in the novel. In addition, the anonymous letter writer adds a curious post scriptum asserting she is not acquainted with the author, neither is she an admirer as she has never met him. She concludes by stating that very much like she appreciates beauty/marvels, she does not ask the book about the brain who thought it or the hand which wrote it. The novel became a bestseller and continues in print to date. The translation into English appeared in Senhora Profile of a Woman (1994) translated by Catarina Feldmann Edinger (1944-2006) and published by the University of Texas Press in Austin. There is an In Memoriam piece about her in the Translation Journal 2007 http://translationjournal.net/journal/39feldmann.htm 5 2018 – The year of reading Brazilian Literary Greats & unlocking the power of our minds! #LiteraryGreatsBRAZIL #ReadBRAZILIT Her introduction is, similarly to other introductions to translated works, a single point of view at a particular time and tries perhaps too hard to fit the novel into her own research work ignoring some key clues contained in the text. The part in which she speaks about the challenges in translating J. de Alencar is the sort of typical litany of complaints, which in fact show the lack of knowledge of language and cultural milieu in which it evolves. Needless to say, translation of classics requires wide-ranging research and acquaintance with the intellectual atmosphere of the time and solid linguistic knowledge. Senhora was published two years before the death of the author and as our book club members will recall, there were early translations of his novels Iracema and O Guarany, which certainly provide any translator with invaluable resources. The translation does not include the Note which appears at the end of the 1875 edition, briefly outlined above.