The Looking-Glass: Classic Short Stories Collection - Perfect for Book Clubs, Gifts & Literary Enthusiasts
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SKU:88190062
Product Description
Enchanting, fresh translations of the finest stories by Brazil’s greatest writer and author of short stories, cited as the greatest black writer in Western literature“Machado de Assis showed the human comedy is the same everywhere, and in conflicts between man and society, society usually wins.” --The New YorkerMachado de Assis is one of the most enigmatic and fascinating story writers who ever lived. What appear at first to be stately social satires reveal unanticipated depths through flashes of darkness and winking surrealism. This new selection of his finest work, translated by the prize-winning Daniel Hahn, showcases the many facets of his mercurial genius. A brilliant scientist opens the first asylum in his home town, only to start finding signs of insanity all around him. A young lieutenant basks in praise, but in solitude feels his identity fray into nothing. The reading of a much-loved elder statesman's journals reveals hidden thoughts of merciless cruelty. This beautiful new collection of fresh translations offers the perfect gathering of his most beloved stories:The Fortune-TellerThe Posthumous Portrait GalleryThe LoanThe Tale of the CabrioletThe StickThe Secret CauseThe Canon, or Metaphysics of StyleThe AlienistThe Looking-GlassMidnight Mass
Customer Reviews
Fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jane Austin will feel similar affection for the short stories of de Assis because he has a similar way of illuminating the psychological quirks of his characters. Also, the middle class and upper class people of Brazil in the late 1800s are shown to have had much the same socioeconomic concerns as the Industrial Age middle classes of London and New York. Assis comments on notions of modernity, identity, and consensus reality in revelatory ways. Irony and satire combine in interesting ways. A consummate stylist, Assis nevertheless does not let a clever style get in the way of crafting instantly engaging, accessible, and memorable modern fables.
