Quincas Borba

Hailed in his lifetime as one of Latin America's greatest writers, Machado de Assis (1839–1908) was a storyteller known for his wholly innovative narrative techniques and uncanny talent for unraveling the social and political milieu of nineteenth-century Brazil. These signature traits are on full display in Quincas Borba, a novel that sees Machado satirize a rapidly changing Rio de Janeiro.

Originally published in 1891, the story begins with the death of its titular character, a mad philosopher infamous for spouting pessimistic theories of "Humanitism." Borba leaves his fortune-including his dog, also named Quincas Borba-to Rubião, his loyal caretaker and a schoolteacher by trade. Bestowed with opulence beyond his wildest dreams, Rubião is quickly coaxed into the comforts of a rich man's life-the only stipulation being that he continues to care for the canine Quincas Borba with the same dedication he once did the human. Adrift in the big, bad, bustling world of late-1860s Rio de Janeiro, it isn't long before Rubião is targeted by the city's sycophants, who can smell his naïveté from a mile away.

Playfully told by an omniscient and possibly unreliable narrator, the novel is at once irreverent and ambitious, brimming with barbed wit and keen philosophical inquiry. Brilliantly translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson-the duo credited with introducing a new generation of readers to Machado through their translations of Dom Casmurro, The Collected Stories, and Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas-Quincas Borba is another strikingly modern tale from a blazing progenitor of twentieth-century fiction.

"A writer one hundred years ahead of his time." -- Salman Rushdie
"Another Kafka." -- Allen Ginsburg
"The creator of a tremendous oeuvre and an inimitable sense of humour." -- José Saramago
"In the sureness of pace, the ingratiating swerve, Machado is peerless." -- Elizabeth Hardwick
"A great ironist, a tragic comedian… In his books, in their most comic moments, he underlines the suffering by making us laugh." -- Philip Roth

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839–1908) was born in Rio de Janeiro and, as well as his seven short-story collections, wrote such groundbreaking novels as Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, Dom Casmurro, Quincas Borba and The Alienist.Margaret Jull Costa, who has translated Javier Marías and José Saramago, lives in England.Robin Patterson has translated José Luandino Vieira and lives in England. 

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