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Epitaph of a Small Winner: A Novel (FSG Classics), by Machado de Assis
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In these memoirs, Braz Cubas, a wealthy nineteenth-century Brazilian, examines (from beyond the grave) his rather undistinguished life in 160 short chapters that are filled with philosophical digressions and exuberant insights. A clear forerunner of Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges, Epitaph for a Small Winner, first published in 1880, is one of the wittiest self-portraits in literary history as well as "one of the masterpieces of Brazilian literature" (Salman Rushdie).
- Sales Rank: #733075 in Books
- Published on: 2008-04-29
- Released on: 2008-04-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .54" w x 5.50" l, .60 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 240 pages
Review
“Epitaph of a Small Winner is probably one of those thrillingly original, radically skeptical books that will always impress readers with the force of private discovery.” ―From the foreword by Susan Sontag
“Machado de Assis was a literary force, transcending nationality and language, comparable certainly to Flaubert, Hardy, or James...Epitaph of a Small Winner is clearly one of those books which we call definitive. It is there, complete, done: a study of ironic disillusionment couched in the most delicate suavity of despair...” ―The New York Times Book Review
“No satirist, not even Swift, is less merciful in his exposure of the pretentiousness and the hypocrisy that lurk in the average good man and woman. Machado, in his deceptively amiable way, is terrifying.” ―The New Republic
“A masterpiece of Epicurean irony.” ―The New York Times
About the Author
Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is considered one of Brazil's greatest novelists.
Most helpful customer reviews
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
"Lifelong Wastrel Kicks a Goal at Last"
By Bob Newman
Brazil has produced a number of wonderful novels. I can name "Rebellion in the Backlands" by Euclides da Cunha, "The Devil to Pay in the Backlands" by João Guimaraes Rosa, "The Tent of Miracles" and "Gabriela; Clove and Cinnamon" by Jorge Amado, and "The Three Marias" by Rachel de Queiroz, but these are only a few. You have to add to this list at least a couple novels by J. M. Machado de Assis, Brazil's greatest writer of the 19th century, (he died in 1908) and one of the greatest writing anywhere at that time. EPITAPH OF A SMALL WINNER would be on that list for sure. I can hear you say, "Can you really compare this fellow to writers like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Balzac, Zola, Melville, Austen, or Eliot ?" My answer would be "yes" and "no". That's because I like definite answers. Sorry, just kidding. I would say "no" because Machado de Assis doesn't write like any of the others. His style is unique and his choice of perspective also. He is the opposite of a realist. He never hits you over the head with any serious descriptive narrative. His characters speak throughout. So, how could you compare him effectively with the others ? But, I would say "yes" because he is a master of subtle story telling, of wit, satire, and irony. This novel, like his others, does not resemble any other work. He is certainly among the greats.
Braz Cubas, the narrator of the novel, is already dead when we meet him. So he has plenty of time to tell about his life. As he notes, "death does not age one"; he can afford to ramble a bit. What we receive, through his life story, is a satirized view of the indolence and lack of intellectual rigor of the Brazilian upper class of the time. We read the life of a man who did nothing at all in 64 years. Or almost nothing. He didn't study, he didn't work, he didn't marry, and he didn't have any direction. He became a parliamentary deputy through connections and did absolutely nothing while there. He enjoyed the physical pleasures of life, he envied others, he had ambitions that he did next to nothing to fulfill. He failed at nearly everything, then at last he croaked. The reason why he feels (from beyond the grave) that he wasn't such a loser after all is the author's final bit of irony. Machado de Assis employs his usual style---160 short chapters in 223 pages---with the title of each chapter used to spice up the progress of the novel, which in turn is full of irony, with, whimsy, and very clever writing, full of ingenious metaphors. You cannot say that this is a "page turner" in any conventional sense. It is rather philosophical, but as the author says, "a philosophy wanting in uniformity, now austere, now playful...." To quote from chapter 124, which is all of 9 lines long---"To hop from a character study to an epitaph may be realistic and even commonplace, but the reader probably would not have taken refuge in this book if he had not wished to escape the realistic and the commonplace." That is my recommendation to you. Escape both the realistic and the commonplace and read this book. You won't regret it.
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
One of The Writer's Best
By E. Barteldes
Quoting D.H. Lawrence is his review of "Moby Dick", "this is one of the strangest and most wonderful books I've ever read"
Well, maybe not that wonderful.
"Epitaph of a Small Winner" was the second book of Machado de Assis' collection that I read, the first being "Dom Casmurro."
This novel innaugurated Realism in Brazil, at a time when most writers were trying to break away from Romanticism. It is a strange book, narrated in first person by the deceased himself, Bras Cubas. I would not consider it easy to read. Some of its passages are pretty hard on the reader, specially if you read it in Portuguese (as I did). I recall having to go back in the chapter to understand what Machado was trying to say.
"Epitaph of A Small Winner" is required reading in most Brazilian schools. I believe it shouldn't be, since some of its language and style is a bit incomprehensive for teenagers. I read it for the first time when I was 29, so that might give you a picture of what I am trying to say.
Machado de Assis is regarded as "Brazil's finest writer." I do not agree with this point of view, since the country has many fantastic writers, such as Jose de Alencar and Aluizio Azevedo. Rating Assis as "the greatest" would be, at least, overrating him
The bottom line is that if you want to get acquainted with early 20th Century Brazilian literature, this book is a good start. Maybe you might want to investigate this South American country's writers further, and make your own mind if Machado is really the finest
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Yes, read this book -- but perhaps not this version.
By Guttersnipe Das
This book is an example of a genre woefully under-utilized: the posthumous memoir. As Bras Cubas reports, “I am a deceased writer not in the sense of one who has written and is now deceased, but in the sense of one who has died and is now writing” (5). If only this could happen more often. Just think of all the people who would almost unquestionably be more interesting from the other side of the grave than they are on this side. Kissinger springs to mind.
(A little more seriously: can you think of other novels that use this device? I would love to make a list. Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, with Penelope in Hades giving her side of the story, is the only one I know, though I’m sure that there are many more. If you think of one, could you respond in the comments?)
“But in death, what a difference! what relief! what freedom! How glorious to throw away your cloak, to dump your spangles in a ditch, to unfold yourself, to strip off all your paint and ornaments, to confess plainly what you are and what you failed to be!” (57) This is the energy that inhabits the 160 very short chapters of this book, as Bras Cubas recounts, in extraordinary style, the rather ordinary life of a 19th century Brazilian aristocrat.
When I first spotted this book, in the library of a monastery, I chose it because it seemed the most worldly book available. However, it is so relentless in stripping away human vanity, pretension and self-delusion that it nearly qualifies as a spiritual text.
The book had grabbed my attention because I instantly loved its title. In fact, “Epitaph of a Small Winner” is actually the subtitle of the original novel. Although I noticed that other people disliked this translation, I found it pleasantly readable.
That said, plenty of people over 35 are going to reject this book as soon as they open it for the simplest reason. This is obviously a reprint of a printing done in the Fifties – and it appears to have been done on a mimeograph machine from that period. Letters are fuzzy, blotchy and blurred. Unworthy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux!
It seems condescending to applaud a 19th century book for being “modern”, but, I’m sorry, I can’t avoid it. This is a post-modern text, written in 1880, which may be a bigger trick than a memoir written from the grave. . . Fragmentation, a peculiar viewpoint, commentary on top of commentary – it is all so lively and so much fun. Fans of Rushdie or Saramago (or even Vonnegut or Murakami) will feel immediately at home.
I loved this book both times I read it and I'm grateful it's in print. If it was in print we could actually easily read, that’d be even better.
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