Esau and Jacob

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

4.5

Word count: 416K words
Chapters: 42

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.Esau e Jacob by Machado de AssisAuthor: Machado de Assis, 1839-1908,Language: Portuguese, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Mar 14, 2018

Editor's review

Esau and Jacob is one of the major late novels of the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. Its Portuguese title borrows the biblical story of two brothers at odds, and the novel unfolds the undercurrents swirling around inheritance, marriage, and reputation in a Rio de Janeiro upper-class family. Narrated from a cool, even ironic perspective, it peels back layer after layer of its characters' psychology; the plot moves not through violent conflict but through calculation in dialogue and silence. For Chinese readers its value lies in understanding the class structure of nineteenth-century Brazilian society and Machado's signature irony; the main barrier to reading is language and pace rather than density of incident. The Project Gutenberg electronic edition is convenient for language study or close reading against the original. Suitable as advanced reading in Latin American literature; read alongside the author's later works and contemporary social history, it makes the weight of his narrative experimentation clearer.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have read Machado de Assis and want to go deeper into his late novels
Intermediate and advanced learners of Portuguese who wish to do close reading in the literary original
Readers interested in nineteenth-century Brazilian society and Latin American realist literature
Literature lovers who enjoy ironic narration and psychological portraiture

Not a good fit for

Beginners with no Portuguese at all and no reliable translation to consult
Casual readers expecting fast-paced plotting or strong dramatic conflict
Newcomers who need a concise overview of Brazilian history rather than a literary text

Reading tips

First get a grasp of the biblical story of Esau and Jacob, then enter the novel's web of relationships.
Read the first few chapters with a translation beside the original to attune to the narrator's ironic tone, then pick up speed.
Keep a character chart tracking the three threads of inheritance, marriage, and reputation.
After each chapter, look back at the narrator's comments and distinguish characters' thoughts from the narrator's hints.

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

Can I read this book without any Portuguese?

Yes, but you will need a reliable Chinese or English translation to consult. This electronic edition is the Portuguese original, and the narrator's irony is subtle; relying entirely on machine translation easily loses the tone. Read the plot through in translation first, then compare key chapters against the original to feel the differences in syntax and tone; this way you can both follow the story and appreciate Machado's style.

What is the relation between the title "Esau and Jacob" and the plot?

The title borrows the biblical story of the twin brothers Esau and Jacob contending for the birthright and the blessing, hinting at the competition, favoritism, and conflicts of interest within the novel's family. It is more an overarching metaphor than a point-by-point plot framework. As you read, notice who is favored and who is sacrificed among the characters, and how inheritance and marriage become substitutes for the "blessing."

Why does the novel's narrative pace feel slow?

Machado's late novels often advance through the narrator's commentary, pauses, and hints, with conflict hidden in dialogue and silence rather than erupting in concentrated bursts. This pace asks readers to attend to shifts in tone and to motives characters leave unspoken. If it feels slow, first map the characters and their interests chapter by chapter, and shift your reading goal from "watching events" to "watching attitudes"; the pace will feel noticeably better.

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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.