The Hand and the Glove

Machado de Assis, 1839-1908Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 204K words
Chapters: 21

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. A Mao e A Luva by Machado de Assis. Author: Machado de Assis, 1839-1908. Language: Portuguese. Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese. Release Date: Sep 20, 2016

Editor's review

A Mão e a Luva ("The Glove") is an early novel by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis (1839–1908), released as a Portuguese public-domain eBook by Project Gutenberg. Machado de Assis later became famous for works such as The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, while this book shows his early interest in social class, marriage, and personal ambition. The novel is short, with a concentrated set of characters, and its language has the features of nineteenth-century Portuguese; it is suitable as an introductory text for approaching Machado's work and as long-form reading practice for Portuguese learners. The Project Gutenberg edition is free and searchable, convenient for classroom excerpts and close reading. When reading, pay attention to the narrator's subtle handling of characters' motives, and do not judge it by the standards of modern psychological fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars studying Brazilian literature, especially Machado de Assis's early work
Learners studying Portuguese who wish to improve their reading with an original novel
Literary readers interested in nineteenth-century themes of marriage and social class

Not a good fit for

General readers who only read Chinese translations and are unfamiliar with Portuguese
Readers of genre fiction who prefer strong plots and fast-paced narrative
Portuguese beginners who need detailed notes and introductions; the Project Gutenberg edition has limited supplementary material

Reading tips

Learn about Machado de Assis's life and the social background of nineteenth-century Brazil before starting the text.
Portuguese learners can read through one chapter first, mark long sentences and outdated usage, look up words systematically, and then reread.
Take notes on the main characters' relationships, focusing on their marriage choices and class motives, to help grasp the narrative's intent.
Read it alongside the author's later works to observe changes in his narrative techniques and themes.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for Portuguese beginners?

Not really for learners starting from zero. It is a nineteenth-century Portuguese novel whose sentence structures and vocabulary bear the marks of their time, and the Project Gutenberg edition lacks annotations. Intermediate or advanced learners who already have basic grammar can try it, but they will need a dictionary and background materials.

Where does "The Glove" stand in Machado's work?

It is an early novel by Machado de Assis, centered on social class, marriage, and personal choice, and it does not yet fully show the mature, coldly ironic style of his later works. For that very reason, it is useful for observing the starting point of the author's development.

Is the Project Gutenberg edition suitable for classroom use?

It can be used as a free source text for the original, convenient for full-text searches and printing excerpts. But teachers need to supply author background, historical context, and language notes themselves, and verify citation formats; they should not rely entirely on the ready-made supplementary material of the electronic edition.

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About the author

Machado de Assis, 1839-1908 Author

Machado de Assis (1839–1908) is one of the most influential writers in Brazilian literary history, with nine of his works included in this collection. His major novels, such as Dom Casmurro, Memorias Posthumas de Braz Cubas, Quincas Borba, and Esau e Jacob, focus largely on social life and psychology in Rio de Janeiro, employing irony, restrained narration, and unreliable narrators, with plots often revolving around jealousy, marriage, ambition, and identity. Short-story collections such as Papeis Avulsos and Historias Sem Data show his skill in concise storytelling, with a cool, humorous tone. Because public information is limited, details of his early life and biography are omitted here; his works nevertheless reveal a sustained scrutiny of human weakness and social hypocrisy, and his influence on later Brazilian literature is profound.