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Translated from the Portuguese and with an introduction
by R.L. Scott-Buccleuch
Aires, a retired diplomat, makes an unlikely bet with his
sister that he will be able to marry a young widow with whom
he has become obsessed. This elegiac story is the last novel
of Brazil’s greatest writer, Machado de Assis.
Returning to his native Rio after many years abroad, Aires
is captivated by a young widow, Fidelia Noronha, whom he sees
praying at her husband’s graveside. Her charm and the
tragic story of her brief marriage increase his fascination,
and soon he is indulging in impossible dreams. But the Brazil
that Aires remembers from his youth is changing fast. A new
era is dawning with events such as the coming of the railway
and the abolition of slavery. The future belongs to a younger
generation, to men like Tristão, the doctor and political
candidate who is also an admirer of the beautiful Fidelia.
The Wager is a story of broken dreams, love and obsession
– universal themes that give de Assis’s work the
timeless quality for which it is renowned.
‘It is not enough to say that he is an important
American novelist; he is one of the masters in either hemisphere.’ – New
York Times
‘Brazil’s greatest novelist . . . comparable with
Stendhal or Sterne’ – V.S. Pritchett
‘Amazingly modern, tempered with irony, wit and wisdom’ – Guardian
MACHADO DE ASSIS (1839 – 1908) Brazil’s
greatest novelist, was born in a poor carioca district
of Rio de Janeiro. He worked as a newspaper reporter before
entering the civil service, where he rose to high rank.
During his life he published more than two hundred short
stories and nine novels, including Esau and Jacob and Yayá
Garcia. He was one of the founders, and the first president,
of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. |
