Aluísio Azevedo
1857–1913
Biography
Aluísio Azevedo was born in São Luís, the capital of the state of Maranhão, in 1857, and he died in Buenos Aires in 1913. He wrote novels, short stories, plays and caricatures, and he also worked in the diplomatic service. Early on he wrote in the Romantic manner, and he then moved to Naturalism, the school that treated character as shaped by heredity, environment and social pressure. In 1881 he published O Mulato, which marked the start of Naturalism in Brazilian fiction. From 1897 until his death he held the fourth chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
His best known novels are O Mulato, Casa de Pensão and O Cortiço. O Mulato takes on racial prejudice and the hypocrisy of a provincial town. Casa de Pensão follows the residents of a boarding house in Rio de Janeiro, and O Cortiço portrays a crowded tenement yard in the same city and the people who live and work there. Together these books argued for writing about ordinary urban life, about race and about class, and they did so with a directness that was unusual for their time.
The site holds all three of these novels, so it offers a good starting point for Brazilian Naturalism. Reading them in order shows the move from Romantic idealism to a harder look at the streets, the households and the social fears of nineteenth-century Brazil.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
Casa de Pensão
by Aluísio Azevedo
Amâncio, a young man from Maranhão sent to Rio de Janeiro to study medicine, falls into the hands of a boarding-house keeper, Madame Brizard, and a circle of hangers-on. Aluísio Azevedo's novel of 1884, based on a scandal of the day, follows the slow ruin of a spoiled young…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.O Cortiço
by Aluísio Azevedo
O Cortiço ('The Slum') is an influential Brazilian novel written in 1890 by Aluísio Azevedo. The novel depicts a part of Brazil's culture in the late 19th century, represented by a variety of colorful characters living in a single Rio de Janeiro tenement. It is written with the…
Summary from Wikipedia: O Cortiço (CC BY-SA 4.0)O Homem
by Aluísio Azevedo
Magdá, a councillor's daughter in Rio de Janeiro, grows up nervous, wilful and intensely loved, and her family's doctor takes an interest in her. Aluísio Azevedo's novel of 1887 is a naturalist study of a woman's passion and the medicine and morals of her day.
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.O Mulato
by Aluísio Azevedo
O Mulato (English: The Mulatto) is a novel written by the Brazilian writer Aluísio de Azevedo. It was first published in 1881 and represents the beginning of Brazilian Naturalism. The movement peaked at the end of the 19th century, and sought to portray reality in a raw and…
Summary from Wikipedia: O Mulato (CC BY-SA 4.0)