Waterstones The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
374 ratings
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Price: £14.99
Brand: Waterstones
Description: A revelatory new translation of the playful, incomparable masterpiece of one of the greatest Black authors in the Americas Machado de Assis is not only Brazil's most celebrated writer but also a writer of world stature. In his masterpiece, the 1881 novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (also translated as Epitaph of a Small Winner), the ghost of a decadent and disagreeable aristocrat decides to write his memoir. He dedicates it to the worms gnawing at his corpse and tells of his failed romances and half-hearted political ambitions, serves up hare-brained philosophies and complains with gusto from the depths of his grave. Wildly imaginative, wickedly witty and ahead of its time, the novel has been compared to works by Cervantes, Sterne, Joyce, Nabokov, Borges and Calvino, and has influenced generations of writers around the world.
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9780143135036
Delivery cost: 2.99
ISBN: 9780143135036
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Author: Neasa MacErlean
Rating: 5
Review: This is one of Brazil's most admired authors writing in the style of Jonathan Swift (especially 'A Tale of a Tub') 150 years before him. So this book (published 1881) is not that easy to read, even if it is beautifully written and translated. Bras Cubas himself, writing his memoirs from the grave, is an unpleasant, wealthy, idle man who never achieves anything and who has an affair with the woman he should have married. In Swiftian style, he enjoys insulting everyone. He tells us, for instance, that if the book "should please you, my fine reader, I am paid for my labours; if it should not please you, I will pay you with a flick of the finger, and farewell". Like so many rich men of his time, he delves into a bit of moral philosophy, espousing the 'Humanitism' of a friend. Like the policies Swift attacked (especially in A Modest Proposal), Humanitism is pretty evil — a pious cover for all forms of exploitation. Sustaining a satire for 290 pages is quite a challenge. Even though it is beautifully written, The Posthumous Memoirs will appeal most to dedicated students of literature.
Author: MissMouse
Rating: 3
Review: the story is fascinating as is the author, but to find a good translation...? I just find this and the previous translation to lack literary skill. Perhaps it's time for publishers to actually employ actual writers to translate these works, those with a talent for expression who can carry the tone and rhythm of the original rather than awkward-sounding attempts which seem to make a mess of it. How about it?
