Machado de Assis

Machado de Assis was a Brazilian writer, journalist and politician who is considered one of the most important literary figures of the 19th century. He wrote novels, short stories, essays, and journalism, exploring themes of identity, language, time, and solitude. He was born to a wealthy family in Rio de Janeiro, in 1839, and graduated in law and started his literary career. He published his first work, Fantoches, in 1852, with a sequence of short stories, mostly in the form of short plays. The following year, he saw his first great success with the novel O Guarani, which was later adapted into an opera by Antônio Carlos Gomes. He wrote under the pen name Erasmo, and was a major exponent of the literary tradition known as "Indianism", which focused on the indigenous peoples and culture of Brazil. He also wrote historical, regionalist and urban novels, such as As Minas de Prata, O Gaúcho, and Lucíola. He was a political activist and a member of the Conservative Party, and served as a deputy, a senator, and a minister of justice. He was also a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and the Historical and Geographical Institute of Brazil. He wrote several books on Brazilian history and culture, such as História da Literatura Brasileira and Brasil: Terra e Povo. He is best known for his epic trilogy O Tempo e o Vento, which spans two centuries of the history of Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil, through the lives of several generations of a family. He also wrote other acclaimed novels, such as Dom Casmurro, Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, and Quincas Borba. He died of heart failure in 1908, at the age of 69. He is widely regarded as a master of the Portuguese language and a pioneer of modernist literature in Brazil.