Historias Sem Data

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

4.4

Word count: 300K words
Chapters: 30

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.Historias Sem Data by Machado de AssisAuthor: Machado de Assis, 1839-1908,Language: Portuguese, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jul 3, 2010

Editor's review

Historias Sem Data is a short-story collection by Machado de Assis (1839–1908), the master of Brazilian realist literature, with the original Portuguese text released free by Project Gutenberg. The book continues the author's late-career cool dissection of human nature's subtleties, social hypocrisy, and the randomness of fate; his narratives often rely on irony and ellipsis, and though brief, they leave a lingering aftertaste. As a public-domain e-book, its value lies first in accessibility: readers can encounter an important specimen of 19th-century Brazilian literature without paying, and thereby understand Portuguese-language literature's transition from Romanticism to realism. Its highlights are flexible narrative viewpoints and dense psychological description, often entering through everyday scenes yet unexpectedly overturning readers' expectations. It suits advanced Portuguese learners as reading material, and literary enthusiasts for close reading and comparative reading of short stories. Note that the book is in original Portuguese and was written in the 19th century, so its syntax and diction bear period features; non-Portuguese readers should read it alongside a translation or annotations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners with intermediate or higher Portuguese reading ability who want to encounter Brazilian literature in the original
Literary readers interested in 19th-century realist short stories and ironic narration
Teachers and students who need short texts for close reading in class or comparative literary study
E-book readers who want free access to public-domain Portuguese-language literary resources

Not a good fit for

Complete beginners who do not know Portuguese and do not plan to use a translation
Readers expecting a long, continuous plot or strong dramatic conflict
Readers who prefer contemporary plain prose and lack patience for 19th-century syntax

Reading tips

First read one story straight through to feel the narrative tone, then go back and mark the places of irony and ellipsis.
Use a Portuguese dictionary or a bilingual translation to work through long sentences and period diction paragraph by paragraph.
Read in thematic groups and compare how the narrator's stance shifts from story to story.
After each story, write a three-to-five-sentence summary and note how the ending's twist changes your understanding.

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

What level of Portuguese is needed to read this book?

Intermediate or higher Portuguese reading ability is recommended, enough to handle complex sentences and literary vocabulary. The 19th-century text differs from modern Portuguese in syntax and spelling, so beginners should use a bilingual translation or annotated edition, first grasp the plot, then return to the original and gradually adapt to the author's ironic tone.

Is this a novel or a short-story collection?

It is a short-story collection; each piece stands alone and is fairly short, suitable for reading in scattered sessions. There is no continuous plot between stories, so readers can choose the order by interest and can easily finish one story in spare moments.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

This edition is released free by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain e-book, easy to download and search. The text is the original Portuguese and usually contains no modern annotations or introduction, so readers need to prepare a dictionary or consult a translation and pay attention to the e-book's layout and paragraphing.

Comments

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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.