Livros sobre Livros
Livros sobre Livros
The Tenement
with map, commentaru and iconographic suplement
Author: Aluízio de Azevedo
Translator: Thomas Sprengers
In a crowded Rio de Janeiro tenement at the end of the 19th century, lives collide, desires burn, and prejudice festers. The Tenement (O Cortiço), Aluízio Azevedo’s groundbreaking novel of 1890, peels back the layers of a society in flux, where poverty, race, and ambition intersect in raw, unforgiving ways.
Told with fierce realism and biting irony, the novel follows João Romão, an ambitious merchant who builds a profitable slum and exploits those who live within it. Around him, a cast of unforgettable characters — washerwomen, immigrants, freed slaves, children — struggle to assert their humanity in a city eager to deny it.
A classic of Brazilian Naturalism, The Tenement is not only a powerful social portrait but also a work of brutal beauty, still unsettlingly relevant today.
This edition brings the novel to English readers with a fresh, faithful translation and a critical eye on its historical context.
Entrevistados
André Calgaro, André Palme, Andréia Amaral, Camila Cabete, Carlo Carrenho, Carolina Bassin, Cibele Bustamante, Cristiane Gomes, Dante Cid, Fernanda Dantas, Fernanda Hamann, Hada Maller, Ismael Borges, João Scortecci, José Jardim, Karine Pansa, Maria Fernanda Rodrigues, Marifé Boix García, Matheus Victor, PC Marciano, Raquel Menezes, Renata Costa, Roberta Machado, Silvia Rebello, Taissa Reis, Talita Camargo, Talita Facchini, Tomaz Adour, e Vitor Tavares.
Sobre o autor
Aluísio Tancredo Belo Gonçalves de Azevedo was born on April 14, 1857, in São Luís, the capital of the province of Maranhão, in Brazil.
In academia, his body of work is often considered irregular, with some of his writings tending towards melodramatic romantic novels aimed at commercial success, and others carrying well-elaborated Naturalist features, which grants him his brand as a pioneer of the Brazilian Naturalist movement.
In 1895 he became a diplomat and essentially quit his literary career. He worked in Spain, Japan, Argentina, England and Italy.
He was one of the co-founders of the Academia Brasileira de Letras, the most prominent Brazilian literary academy, in 1896, where he occupied seat number four.