By Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Translated by Karen C. Sherwood Sotelino
Introduction by José Luiz Passos
ISBN: 9781628973846
Publication Date: 3/29/22
Machado de Assis's first novel visits themes the author developed exquisitely throughout his career including marriage, memory, and perspective. In this insightful translation by Karen Sherwood Sotelino, and with an introduction by José Luiz Passos, the novel reveals the author’s early experiment in drawing out psychological and sociological issues of his times. Readers familiar with his mature works will recognize the progression from infatuation, through passion, doubt, and toxic jealousy, as experienced by protagonists Félix and Lívia in 19th century Rio de Janeiro.
Reviews
“Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis is universally recognized as Brazil’s greatest writer. Resurrection was his first novel, and this is its first publication in English—a most welcome event. This is no tentative beginning, but an original, carefully observed study of a jealous man, set amongst the Rio de Janeiro middle class. In particular, it looks forward to Machado’s greatest and most popular novel, Dom Casmurro, in which he returns (obsessively?) to the same favorite type.” —John Gledson
“Long relegated to the shelf of ‘immature works, Resurrection resurfaces, in English version, as what it has always been: a sophisticated comment on the green-eyed monster’s roamings in a tropical Europeanized society, whose denizens, like Ingmar Bergman’s characters, will reappear in later novels, under different names, always intently turned upon their own feelings, fears, and foibles.” —Milton M. Azevedo, scholar, Hispanic linguistics and translation theory
"I have not read such a well-conceived and carefully finished book in a long time. Resurrection is a novel that will mark an era of our literature and will be the beginning of a triumphant career for Machado de Assis." —Joaquim Serra, A Reforma
“In many aspects, Machado de Assis’s debut novel foretells the genius found in his later works. Within the restricted limits of the reigning decorum, the daring of the moral analysis is substantial and highly unconventional. It is a novel for sophisticated readers.” —Roberto Schwarz, author, Misplaced Ideas: Essays on Brazilian Culture
"The publication of Resurrection in English is not only timely, but also necessary for a thorough appreciation of Machado de Assis’s place in world literature." —Luciana Namorato, Hispania
"The novel is not simple narrative, it is something that first speaks to the soul, and leaves in it an impression of profound truth about the thesis that it proposes to develop, and then acclaims it in praise: Such sweet turn of phrase and what softness of thought!" —Carlos Ferreira, Correio do Brasil
Biographical Information
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839–1908) is widely considered one of the most innovative Latin American authors and is best known for his two masterpiece novels, Memórias Póstumas de Bras Cubas and Dom Casmurro. He was also the founding president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (1896), a position he held throughout the rest of his life.
Karen C. Sherwood Sotelino was born in San Francisco, California and holds a PhD from UC Santa Cruz. She has translated novels by Machado de Assis, Raul Brandão, Raduan Nassar, and António Lobo Antunes. She has taught English, Portuguese, and translation at Associação Alumni in São Paulo and Stanford University.
José Luiz Passos is a Professor of Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Cultures at UCLA. His research and writing explore the role of memory and outsiders in modern Brazil.