Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was born on 21 June 1839 in Rio de Janeiro to a father of African ancestry and a white Azorean mother, under the protection of a godmother, Dona Maria José de Mendonça Barroso. Machado’s parents lived as agregados (dependants) of this rich woman, a Portuguese widow of an imperial senator. As a result, Machado’s childhood was characterized by a close relationship with very distinct and even contrasting economic, social, and racial realities. The prolific writer maintained an exceptionally private life – his personal views, his dreams and ambitions, his motives, his political ideology, as well as his closest relationships remain to a great extent unknown to his readers and critics.

Very little has been discovered about Machado’s life until the age of 15. Nonetheless, all evidence suggests that he was an enterprising autodidact from a very early age. During his teens, Machado began working in Paulo Brito’s bookstore and typography in Rio de Janeiro. This experience afforded him an opportunity to mingle with and learn from important intellectuals of his time, such as Joaquim Manuel de Macedo and José de Alencar. Soon after, Machado began to work under the protection of the writer Manuel Antônio de Almeida, as an apprentice typesetter.

By the end of the 1850s, Machado had simultaneously started his career as a journalist and engaged himself in the literary world, with dozens of publications in various magazines and newspapers, mostly in the form of poetry and drama. Early in his career, at the age of 27, he entered the civil service, a job he valued and maintained until his death.

In 1867, Machado met Ana Carolina Xavier de Novais, the woman he would marry two years later. Ana Carolina, five years his senior, was the sister of one of Machado’s closest friends, a Portuguese poet who also lived in Rio de Janeiro. The marriage to a white, educated Portuguese woman would be an important stamp of approval to Machado’s full establishment as a member of the elite. Even though Machado was already a well-accepted and admired writer when he began to court Ana Carolina, it is believed that her family initially opposed the marriage due to Machado’s skin color. Today, the official version celebrates Machado and Ana Carolina as an exemplary case of marriage bliss and mutual dedication.

At a slow and steady pace, Machado de Assis began to apply himself to writing prose, the genre that became his métier, both in the form of short-stories and novels. By 1878, Machado had experienced uninterrupted success and a steady, undeniable ascension. A serious health crisis, however, forced Machado to spend 3 months of rest outside of Rio de Janeiro, in the city of Nova Friburgo. Only then was it confirmed that Machado suffered from serious epileptic seizures. With time, the seizures became more and more frequent.

Many biographies and critical interpretations tend to agree that, after the period of recovery, Machado returned to Rio de Janeiro a different author. Taking into consideration the insights and witticisms manifested in previous short stories and crônicas, it is problematic to speak of a complete and definite break away from his previous work. However, a different novelist and stylist did indeed emerge with the publication of Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (in the form of installments in 1880 and as a book the following year). His previous novels had given him the respect and the recognition any author would aspire to obtain, but the ironic and radical tone of the deceased narrator of Memórias Póstumas would elevate Machado to a critically acclaimed writer of unequal stature.

Machado de Assis’ continuously successful career afforded him and Ana Carolina a comfortable lifestyle, and around 1884 they moved to a home on Cosme Velho Street, where they would remain for the rest of their lives. The house was located in one of the most affluent neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro. This was a time of heated debates in Brazilian politics, when liberals and conservatives fought over two main points: the abolition of slavery and the legitimacy of the monarchy. Machado never associated himself with any political movements and maintained mostly a quiet posture.

In the opinion of some biographers, such as Ubiratan Machado in “The Enigma of Cosme Velho”, Machado supported the cause of abolition through his participation in the Agriculture Department. This government outlet was responsible for arbitrating disputes regarding the Law of the Free Womb, which established in 1871 that the newly born children of slaves were freed men and women. According to some critics, Machado’s activities as a section head almost always opposed the interests of the landowners. Amidst the political turmoil, Machado continued to write. Based on a secondary character of Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, the author featured the story of a semi-demented philosopher, in the novel entitled Quincas Borba, published in book form in 1891. During the last decade of the 19th century, the author published some of his most famous short- story collections, such as Várias Histórias.

Soon after the abolition of slavery in 1888 and the proclamation of a republic in 1889, a group of well-respected writers expressed the desire to establish a literary academy in Brazil similar to the famous Academie Française (French Academy). In 1897, Machado de Assis was elected the first President of the Academia Brasileira de Letras (The Brazilian Academy of Letters). In the same year, changes in government precipitated the author’s early and involuntary retirement from civil service, which fortuitously only lasted approximately one year. Machado was asked to return as the secretary to the Minister of Transportation, and soon after, became the general director of accounting in the same Ministry. During the year off, Machado began to write his most famous novel, Dom Casmurro. In this work, Machado created what are arguably the two most famous characters in Brazilian literature: Bentinho and Capitu. Their tumultuous relationship continues to generate, even today, many critical readings.

In 1904, Ana Carolina died of intestinal cancer. At no other time in his life did Machado manifest so openly his personal feelings. In a letter to his friend Joaquim Nabuco, Machado wrote, “I will not have to spend much time remembering her. I shall go to see her. She awaits me.” In that same year, Machado’s eighth novel Esaú e Jacó, was published. Four years later, Memorial de Aires finalized Machado’s already extensive bibliography.

When Machado de Assis died on September 29th 1908, speech after speech honored and praised him. The entire city of Rio de Janeiro mourned the loss of its greatest writer. Machado de Assis redefined the concept of a prolific writer. Besides authoring a lengthy and outstanding list of novels and short-stories, Machado wrote poetry, drama, innumerable critical essays on theater and literature, and adapted French plays and translated novels. His crônicas are still well-read and enjoyed today. In addition, Machado was actively involved in the most varied literary outlets: he was a member of the Conservatório Dramático and participated in several literary circles, such as the Arcádia Fluminense. Machado frequented the Teatro Lírico, entered chess competitions, attended recitals at the Clube Beethoven, and was even a candidate for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies.

Machado de Assis left behind a legacy of short stories and novels, which mordantly criticized Brazil’s insensitive upper middle class and elites with the use of subtle irony and well-crafted ambiguity. Until the age of 40, Machado de Assis grappled with acquiring both literary technique and form. His dedication and hard work granted him early recognition, but his writing lacked the irony and the wit that would be acclaimed as his trademarks. As the author matured, and with the publication of Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, a new literary man emerged. The transformed, perceptive and skeptical author adhered to no ideology, followed no school of thought, and explored significantly new ways to represent the realities of Brazilian society and the complexities of the human condition.

The years that followed Machado de Assis’ death witnessed an outpouring of critical essays, early translations, and publications exploring both the work and life of the Brazilian master. In the second half of the 20th century, non-Portuguese critics began to discover Machado. The author who had so brilliantly criticized Brazil’s insensitive upper middle class and exposed the complexity of his society also began to generate great and various responses by those who knew very little of Brazil. For critics outside of Brazil, it was not Machado’s singular ability to understand and represent the intricacies of his country’s reality that made him stand out; rather, it was the timeless and universal nature of his works that commanded notice. This apparent paradox is one of the author’s everlasting legacies. 

List of works by Machado de Assis:
1864 – Crisálidas (Chrysalids; poetry)
1870 – Falenas (Phalaenae; poetry)
1870 – Contos Fluminenses (Fluminensis Tales)
1872 – Ressurreição (Resurrection)
1873 – Histórias da Meia Noite (Stories of Midnight)
1874 – A Mão e a Luva (The Hand and the Glove)
1875 – Americanas (poetry)
1876 – Helena
1878 – Iaiá Garcia (Mistress Garcia)
1881 – Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Epitaph for a Small Winner)
1882 – Papéis Avulsos (Single Papers)
1882 – O alienista (The psychiatrist)
1884 – Histórias sem data (Undated Stories)
1891 – Quincas Borba (Philosopher or Dog?)
1896 – Várias histórias (Several Stories)
1899 – Páginas recolhidas (Retained Pages)
1899 – Dom Casmurro (Sir Dour)
1901 – Poesias completas (Complete Poetries)
1904 – Esaú e Jacó (Esau and Jacob)
1906 – Relíquias da Casa Velha (Relics of the Old House)
1908 – Memorial de Aires (Counselor Aires’s Memorial)