Quincas Borba A novel

A new translation of the second volume of de Assis's so-called realist trilogy, originally published in 1891, highlights the great Brazilian novelist's penchant for subverting narrative conventions. Quincas Borba, the itinerant philosopher who appeared in the trilogy's first volume, The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, dies, leaving his disciple Rubião an unexpectedly large fortune, provided that Rubião takes care of Quincas Borba's dog (who also happens to be named Quincas Borba). Credulous, grieving, and newly wealthy, Rubião heads to Rio de Janeiro, where he falls for a married woman who, together with her husband, deftly separates Rubião from his inheritance. Rubião suffers a mental breakdown, and the narrative returns to Quincas Borba, the dog. Mimicking a nineteenth-century novel of manners, de Assis offers a wry deconstruction of notions of social climbing. Rubião may espouse Borba's variously Darwinian philosophy of Humanitas, with its odd parable about how best to allocate a limited quantity of potatoes. But de Assis, writing in small, slippery chapters, seems more interested in cleverly denying his readers' desire for a linear, stable narrative. In this respect Quincas Borba anticipates the twentieth-century modernist novel and affirms the author's genius.

Translators Costa and Patterson sharpen the bite of Machado de Assis's delightful 1891 satire of a social climber entering Brazilian society. Before eccentric philospher Quincas Borba died, he entrusted the care of his dog, also named Quincas Borba, to his ingenuous friend Rubiao as a condition for inheriting his fortune. After receiving this unexpected bequest, Rubiao leaves his provincial Brazilian town for Rio, with the canine Quincas Borba in tow. The city's shrewd denizens soon lure Rubiao into such dubious schemes as an importing venture, a political newspaper, and a fund reassuringly called the Union of Honest Investors. As "gaping holes" form in his finances, the ever-sanguine Rubiao develops an infatuation with Sofia, the wife of one of his friends and business partners, who's initially so turned off that she senses an "epidermal incompatibility." Eventually, she is moved by his courtly attentions, a Don Quixote--like fixation that portends his descent into more incapacitating delusions. Rubiao's fantasies are irresistible, and Machado de Assis periodically intrudes with expressions of authorial anxiety, wishing for instance that he could write in a style as straightforward as novelist Henry Fielding's. This shaggy dog story remains one for the ages. (July)

A parodic novel by the great Brazilian writer, first published in 1891. Quincas Borba is a philosopher of sorts, the inventor of a doctrine he calls Humanitism, which takes logical positivism to its extremes. Having propounded it, Borba declares himself "the greatest man on Earth," but although he confidently denies death, soon thereafter he dies. His friend Rubião, who tolerates Borba's eccentricities, is the sole recipient of Borba's considerable fortune, with but one proviso: He must take care of Borba's beloved dog, itself named Quincas Borba. The dog is a sweet thing; Rubião not so much, leaving the poor critter alone while he enjoys the life of high society in Rio de Janeiro. Among other things, Rubião tries mightily to seduce the beautiful young wife of his financial advisor. Sofia is no Emma Bovary, and though she's well aware that Rubião desires her, she seems more interested in an empty-headed social climber closer to her age. She's also well aware of her powers: "Once she had laced up her corset, still standing before the mirror, she lovingly arranged her breasts to show off her magnificent décolletage," attributes that Machado, fond of allusion, likens to a passage from the Greek historian Herodotus. Rubião has fully absorbed just one lesson of Quincas Borba's: There's not enough to go around, making it necessary for one tribe to kill another in order to eat, a lesson that Rubião distills into "a signet ring inscribed with the motto: TO THE WINNER, THE POTATOES!" Alas, potatoes are elusive, and the only admirable figure in Machado's novel is the dog, who "loves being loved. He's happy to believe that he is." He's probably not, but, like the other hapless characters in Machado's satire, he's happy to chase his own tail. A welcome, fresh translation of an overlooked classic, a superb novel of (bad) manners. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.