Dom Casmurro: A Novel [Paperback]

Machado de Assis (Author), Helen Caldwell (Translator), Elizabeth Hardwick (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0374523037 | ISBN-13: 978-0374523039 | Publication Date: September 15, 2009 | Edition: Reprint

Bento Santiago, the wildly unreliable narrator of Dom Casmurro, believes that he has been cuckolded—he suspects that his wife has cheated on him with his best friend and that her child is not his. Has Capitú, his love since childhood, really been unfaithful to him? Or is the evidence of her betrayal merely the product of a paranoid mind? First published in 1900, Dom Casmurro, widely considered Machado de Assis’s greatest novel and a classic of Brazilian literature, is a brilliant retelling of the classic adultery tale—a sad and darkly comic novel about love and the corrosive power of jealousy.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The unreliable narrator and the fictional memoir are long-standing literary traditions. Nineteenth-century Brazilian author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis uses both to brilliant effect in his novel Dom Casmurro. Narrated by Bento Santiago, this memoir looks back over a life filled with the suspicion of betrayal: Bento is convinced that his wife had an affair with his best friend, and that his son was the result of it. Though he has no real evidence to support this belief, Bento becomes so obsessed with it that, in the end, he commits crimes far worse than the suspected adultery to avenge himself. The memoir itself is a kind of justification for his actions; Bento, now alone, recreates the environment of his childhood and attempts to rewrite the facts of his life--in essence, reconstructing the past.

Among readers familiar with Latin American literature, Machado is considered a master. His novels blend black comedy with deadly accurate social commentary and an unerring perception of human psychology to create works that are brilliant, complex without being opaque, and joys to read. The Oxford University Press edition is ably translated by John Gledson and accompanied by critical essays that will help orient readers unfamiliar with Machado's work. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

It's the simplest of stories: boy falls in love with girl next door, they grow up, marry and have a child. Enter jealousy, exit happiness and boy/narrator, Betinho, who goes on to write his magnum opus, the History of the Suburbs . However, Betinho has been promised since conception to the priesthood, a glitch that allows de Assis to describe a community so familiar with God that bargaining with Him is as common as haggling with the butcher. This upper- middle-class Brazilian society of the last century ( Dom Casmurro was first published in 1899) is the setting for Betinho's transformation from a coddled only child to the middle-aged Dom Casmurro, or Lord Taciturn. It is marked by his fantastic imagination, both comic (as when he consults with maggots who are eating books he needs for a dissertation) and tragic (evidence of his beloved wife's infidelity is circumstantial at best). Deftly translated, Dom Casmurro is a book full of humor, sweetness and a tender melancholy--a book that deserves to be read.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374523037
• ISBN-13: 978-0374523039
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Portuguese
  • #39 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > European

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jealousy or "just Bento out of shape", December 22, 2000

By 

Robert S. Newman "Bob Newman" (Marblehead, Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dom Casmurro (Library of Latin America) (Paperback)

European students of literature usually concentrate on writers from their own continent, with occasional nods across the Atlantic to North America. Americans have a somewhat more respectful attitude to Europe, but that's all. Neither take the rest of the world all that seriously and that's a big mistake. Among the national literatures most consistently ignored, none has more to offer than Brazil's. Four writers stand out to my mind----J.M. Machado de Assis, Jorge Amado, João Guimaraes Rosa, and Euclides da Cunha---but there are many others. Of these four writers, three have written great books that reveal aspects of Brazilian history, society and culture in rich detail. The fourth, Machado de Assis, (1839-1908) the writer under review here, is much more a universal author. You will not learn very much about 19th century Brazil from his works. Of course, a little bit of knowledge will stick to your brain---slaves, Emperor, eyes on European trends, tropical climate---but it's amazing how little atmosphere or description there is. Machado de Assis never wanted to be a realist; he is very far from writers like Balzac or Zola.

DOM CASMURRO is divided into 148 chapters. Obviously in a book of 277 pages, each chapter cannot be very long. Machado de Assis uses his chapter titles as part of his work, sources of humor, direction, and irony. The novel is arranged as a memoir written by an embittered man in his sixties about the period of his life from roughly ages 15 to 30. When you begin reading, you think that the theme is "coming of age in Brazil" as the author describes his early romantic attachment to the girl next door and his struggle to avoid the seminary and a priestly future. His family members emerge as complex, interesting and somewhat amusing characters. Machado de Assis is strong on irony, whimsy, and a kind of self-deprecating humor. He also likes creating or using aphorisms and epigrams, of which the novel is full. Slowly he weaves an amazing, complicated story of jealousy and bitterness. Though initially it seemed clear to me that Bento, the main character, was justified in his jealousy of his best friend, the author never takes sides. He allows Bento to write that his wife had betrayed him, but Capitú, the wife, never admits it. On reviewing all the evidence, I have to admit that everything is seen only from Bento's point of view. According to your nature, you will decide yourself on finishing this subtle and well-written classic that deserves a place alongside the best that Europe and America have to offer.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece of World Literature, September 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dom Casmurro (Library of Latin America) (Hardcover)

Machado de Assis is probably one of the most underrated authors literature departments around the US-and other countries-have (not) encountered. He is an absolute requirement for anyone who wishes to consider him/herself well-read. Called "Othello of the Southern Cross" by Helen Caldwell (who wrote the excellent The Brazilian Othello of Machado de Assis-A Study of Dom Casmurro, Berkeley:University of California Press, 1960) this narrative is, among other things, about a man's weakness and fear before the possibility of living life fully (see chapter called 'Are you Scared?). There is a fascinating element of vicariousness- the way Bento Santiago (Saint and Iago, as Caldwell cleverly points out) projects his guilt, sexuality, desires and ambition upon Capitu, and Escobar... For those who missed the point (reader from NY- give it another try) I recommend a different approach, a different translation, or perhaps a course in Portuguese...(why not? Discover a rich and abundant culture!) This is true art.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Othello?, February 4, 2001

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dom Casmurro (Library of Latin America) (Hardcover)

When a novelist writes from the perspective of an omniscient narrator, it at least creates the illusion that we're hearing a full and fair version of events. But it is a peculiarity of first person narrative that some of the very best and some of the very worst novels which use the technique leave us wondering what the story might sound like from the perspective of a different character. We all assume that Sam Spade and Phil Marlowe are reliable sources on the events they relate, but even if we trust Ishmael, don't we wonder what Ahab's version of the great novel Moby Dick might be ? And when it comes to a dreadful novel like Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, one of the most noticeable flaws of the novel is that the villain of the piece is unfairly vilified and we're left wishing he had a voice. Several authors have actually used this idea as a starting point, and in novels like Wide Sargasso Sea, Jack Maggs, and Wicked, have given us alternate versions of classic stories from the perspective of a different character (N.B., yes I'm aware that the source novels for these three are not all told in the first person). These derivative novels are not necessarily effective, Wicked is the only one I'd recommend, but they do reflect a general recognition that, as in real life, even in a fictional story, the narrative of a participant must be suspect, and that our reliance on that narrator may leave us with mistaken impressions. This concept resides deep within our culture: what, after all, is the New Testament but God's recognition that Man has his own side of the story ?

In Dom Casmurro (which translates roughly as "Lord Taciturn"), the aged narrator, Bento Santiago (or Bentinho), relates the story of his romance with Capitolina (known as Capitu), his childhood neighbor and sweetheart, in 1850's Brazil. For love of this girl he schemes his way out of seminary and the priesthood, despite his mother's vow that if God would make her child healthy she would see that he became a priest.

Though the breaking of this vow is troubling, and Bentinho seeks to rationalize it away, the memoir seems essentially to be a love story. Bentinho and Capitu marry. He has a successful law practice. He's devoted to his mother throughout her life and remains great friends with Escobar, whom he met while attending seminary. After considerable effort, Capitu bears a son and the loving couple's lives seem complete. But gradually certain comments and asides begin to intimate that all is not as it appears.

A darkness begins to cloud the previously sunny story. Bentinho reveals a jealous side to his character; at times insanely jealous. He hints that his story is building towards a tragedy. Finally, he even starts to openly identify with Othello. As this transformation proceeds, the reader begins to question the reliability of Bentinho's narration. In particular, thinking back on his descriptions of Capitu we become suspicious of his motives. He has mentioned things like her being more mature than he at the time of their initial courtship, and several remarkable instances where she was able to deceive her parents effortlessly, while he had great difficulty doing the same. It becomes more and more noticeable that Capitu, though the book becomes an indictment of her, is never allowed to defend herself. It's almost certainly reading too much into the novel, but I was struck by the fact that on two occasions Capitu actually writes out words, and that they form a kind of palimpsest in which she sends the reader a secret message : when they are first courting she scratches :

BENTO CAPITOLINA

on a wall; and then later, after quizzing him about his devotion to her, she crawls one word in the dirt : liar. Perhaps this is Machado's way of offering us just a glimpse of Capitu's defense, a coded message that Bentinho is lying about their relationship.

At any rate, the novel is marvelous--sly, witty, and insidious. Machado subverts the first person narration and creates tantalizing, unresolvable doubts in the reader's mind. It's no wonder that he is considered Brazil's greatest novelist and Capitu its most beguiling heroine; like the Mona Lisa, much lies hidden behind a masterful portrait. If, like me before I happened to pick up a copy of this book, you've never heard of Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, do yourself a favor and seek him out. He's well worth the effort.

GRADE : A+