Dom Casmurro

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

4.7

Word count: 380K words
Chapters: 38

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.Dom Casmurro by Machado de AssisAuthor: Machado de Assis, 1839-1908,Language: Portuguese, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Oct 15, 2017

Editor's review

Dom Casmurro is a major novel by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. Told through the first-person recollections of its narrator, Bento, it revolves around his marriage to Capitu and his suspicions of his best friend, leaving one of the most famous unresolved questions in Brazilian literature. The novel's appeal lies not in plot twists but in the narrator's self-defense, evasions, and self-exposure: readers must read between the lines to judge whether Bento is a victim or a jealous fantasist. The Portuguese original is spare and precise, with layers of irony and sarcasm. It is at once a portrait of nineteenth-century Rio society and a forerunner of modern fiction about the unreliability of memory. This edition is a public-domain Portuguese e-book from Project Gutenberg, suitable as a source text for reading and research. Read slowly, noting how the narrator excuses himself and how the author quietly undermines his credibility.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate to advanced Portuguese learners who want to improve their reading through literary originals
Undergraduates and graduate students in Latin American or comparative literature
Serious readers of unreliable narration and psychological suspense
Researchers who need a public-domain Portuguese text for textual analysis

Not a good fit for

Readers with no Portuguese who depend on a Chinese translation
Genre-fiction readers who prefer strong plots and fast pacing
Those who need a teaching edition with detailed notes and a full introduction

Reading tips

First read through without looking up words, grasping the narrator's tone and the overall suspense
On a second pass, mark where Bento defends himself and compare his account with what actually happens
Read alongside a Chinese translation, focusing on wording differences in key scenes
After finishing, look up commentary on the controversy over the ending and form your own judgment

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 in Portuguese or English?

According to the Project Gutenberg record, the language is Portuguese and the class is PQ (Romance literatures). Readers need some Portuguese; those who only want the story can use a Chinese translation alongside.

Can I read it without any Portuguese?

Reading the original directly is not advisable. Much of the novel's value lies in the narrator's language and irony, and the vocabulary and syntax are demanding for beginners. Start with a Chinese translation to get the plot, then return to selected passages in the original.

Who is right at the end of the novel?

This is the book's most famous controversy, and the author deliberately gives no proof. Whether Bento's suspicion holds depends on the reader's judgment of his reliability. Consult criticism afterward, but do not expect a single answer.

Does this e-book include notes or an introduction?

Project Gutenberg editions usually provide only the public-domain text, without scholarly notes or an introduction. For coursework or research, pair it with an annotated edition or relevant secondary sources.

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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.