Machado de Assis

Widely acclaimed as âthe greatest writer ever produced in Latin Americaâ (Susan Sontag), as well as âanother Kafkaâ (Allen Ginsberg), Machado de Assis (1839â"1908) was famous in his time for his psychologically probing tales of fin-de-siecle Rio de Janeiroâ"a world populated with dissolute plutocrats, grasping parvenus, and struggling spinsters. In this original paperback, Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson, âthe accomplished duoâ (Wall Street Journal) behind the âlandmark . . . heroically translatedâ volume (The New Yorker) of the Collected Stories of Machado de Assis, include twenty-six chronologically ordered stories from the seven story collections published during Machadoâs lifeâ"featuring all-time favorites such as the celebrated novella âThe Alienistâ; the tragicomic âparable of bureaucracy, madness, and powerâ (Los Angeles Review of Books), âMidnight Massâ; âThe Caneâ; and âFather Against Mother.â Ultimately, Machado de Assis: 26 Stories affirms Machadoâs status as a literary giant who must finally be fully integrated into the world literary canon.