The Slum

First published in 1890, and undoubtedly Azevedo's masterpiece, The Slum is one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed novels ever written about Brazil. Indeed, its great popularity, realistic descriptions, archetypal situations, detailed local coloring, and overall race-consciousness may well evoke Huckleberry Finn as the novel's North American equivalent. Yet Azevedo also exhibits the naturalism of Zola and the ironic distance ofBalzac; while tragic, beautiful, and imaginative as a work of fiction, The Slum is universally regarded as one of the best, or truest, portraits of Brazilian society ever rendered.This is a vivid andcomplex tale of passion and greed, a story with many different strands touching on the different economic tiers of society. Mainly, however, The Slum thrives on two intersecting story lines. In one narrative, a penny-pinching immigrant landlord strives to become a rich investor and then discards his black lover for a wealthy white woman. In the other, we witness the innocent yet dangerous love affair between a strong, pragmatic, "gentle giant" sort of immigrant and a vivacious mulattowoman who both live in a tenement owned by said landlord. The two immigrant heroes are originally Portuguese, and thus personify two alternate outsider responses to Brazil. As translator David H. Rosenthalpoints out in his useful Introduction: one is the capitalist drawn to new markets, quick prestige, and untapped resources; the other, the prudent European drawn moth-like to "the light and sexual heat of the tropics."A deftly told, deeply moving, and hardscrabble novel that features several stirring passages about life in the streets, the melting-pot realities of the modern city, and the oft-unstable mind of the crowd, The Slum will captivate anyone who mightappreciate a more poetic, less political take on the nineteenth-century naturalism of Crane or Dreiser.

“"With the Library of Latin America, Oxford has opened up a new frontierthat may prove as exciting and enigmatic as the continent itself."--The Herald(South Carolina)”

Previous praise for the Library of Latin America series:"Language has always been a barrier to our unity as the Americas, and most especially to our reading of each other's literatures. Now with this new series by Oxford University Press, the library of Latin America is literally open to North Americans and to English speakers everywhere. This is an important series for anyone who is prevented from knowing the classics of the southern half of this hemisphere because of not knowing the language. !Bienvenidos tothese new readers!"--Julia Alvarez"Azevedo had trained to be an artist, and his strong eye shows in his prose....[He] traveled with his sketchbook to Rio's slums, returning home to render the visual into words. The Slum is the sort of novel Tom Wolfe ordered his colleages to write, a Great American Novel with great American themes, notably greed and race....Brazil still has slums and races...this reality, along with Azevedo's descriptive brilliance, serpentine plotting, comedy and theample helpings of sex and violence, explains why Brazilians still read The Slum."--The New York Times Book ReviewPrevious praise for the Library of Latin America series"Language has always been a barrier to our unity as the Americas, and most especially to our reading of each other's literatures. Now with this new series by Oxford University Press, the library of Latin America is literally open to North Americans and to English speakers everywhere. This is an important series for anyone who is prevented from knowing the classics of the southern half of this hemisphere because of not knowing the language. !Bienvenidos tothese new readers!"--Julia Alvarez"With the Library of Latin America, Oxford has opened up a new frontier that may prove as exciting and enigmatic as the continent itself."--The Herald (South Carolina)"The most significant publishing event in Latin American literature in this country since the Boom of the 1960s."--The Wall Street Journal

The Brazilian novelist Aluísio Azevedo (1857-1913) was also the author of A Woman's Tear, The Mulatto, and several other works. The late David H. Rosenthal was an accomplished translator of works from the Catalan (from 15th-century classics to modern poetry) and also wrote essays and books on many other topics, including Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955-1965 (OUP, 1992).

First published in 1890, and undoubtedly Azevedo's masterpiece, The Slum is one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed novels ever written about Brazil. Indeed, its great popularity, realistic descriptions, archetypal situations, detailed local coloring, and overall race-consciousness may well evoke Huckleberry Finn as the novel's North American equivalent. Yet Azevedo also exhibits the naturalism of Zola and the ironic distance of Balzac; while tragic, beautiful, and imaginative as a work of fiction, The Slum is universally regarded as one of the best, or truest, portraits of Brazilian society ever rendered.This is a vivid and complex tale of passion and greed, a story with many different strands touching on the different economic tiers of society. Mainly, however, The Slum thrives on two intersecting story lines. In one narrative, a penny-pinching immigrant landlord strives to become a rich investor and then discards his black lover for a wealthy white woman. In the other, we witness the innocent yet dangerous love affair between a strong, pragmatic, "gentle giant" sort of immigrant and a vivacious mulatto woman who both live in a tenement owned by said landlord. The two immigrant heroes are originally Portuguese, and thus personify two alternate outsider responses to Brazil. As translator David H. Rosenthal points out in his useful Introduction: one is the capitalist drawn to new markets, quick prestige, and untapped resources; the other, the prudent European drawn moth-like to "the light and sexual heat of the tropics."A deftly told, deeply moving, and hardscrabble novel that features several stirring passages about life in the streets, the melting-pot realities of the modern city, and the oft-unstable mind of the crowd, The Slum will captivate anyone who might appreciate a more poetic, less political take on the nineteenth-century naturalism of Crane or Dreiser.

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