This weekend I had the opportunity to visit an exhibit of Machado de Assis' life work, in São Paulo. Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is considered Brazil's greatest writer and to some critics, such as Harold Bloom and Susan Sontag, one of the greatest writers to have ever lived.
Sadly not well known outside Brazil, this self-taught genius, born from a humble background, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where he never practically left, had a prolific career as a novelist, starting the Realism movement in Brazil. Compared to authors such as Sterne, Swift, or Balzac, Machado spent his adult life as a civil servant, and sometimes a translator and literature critic in Rio (he translated Charles Dickens's work, Oliver Twist, into Portuguese, for instance).He was also founding father, and the first president, of the Brazilian Academy of Literature (Academia Brasileira de Letras - ABL). To learn more about Machado, the "Wizard of Cosme Velho" (O Bruxo de Cosme Velho), as was his nickname, regarding the neighborhood in Rio where he spent most of his adult life, a very interesting article from The New Yorker on that writer!
The New Yorker - Review on Machado de Assis - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/09/hes-one-of-brazils-greatest-writers-why-isnt-machado-de-assis-more-widely-read
Itaú Cultural - Exhibition Machado de Assis - https://www.itaucultural.org.br/secoes/agenda-cultural/eterno-e-contemporaneo-machado-de-assis-e-homenageado-pelo-ocupacao
