Quincas Borba

Translators Costa and Patterson sharpen the bite of Machado de Assis’s delightful 1891 satire of a social climber entering Brazilian society. Before eccentric philospher Quincas Borba died, he entrusted the care of his dog, also named Quincas Borba, to his ingenuous friend Rubiao as a condition for inheriting his fortune. After receiving this unexpected bequest, Rubiao leaves his provincial Brazilian town for Rio, with the canine Quincas Borba in tow. The city’s shrewd denizens soon lure Rubiao into such dubious schemes as an importing venture, a political newspaper, and a fund reassuringly called the Union of Honest Investors. As “gaping holes” form in his finances, the ever-sanguine Rubiao develops an infatuation with Sofia, the wife of one of his friends and business partners, who’s initially so turned off that she senses an “epidermal incompatibility.” Eventually, she is moved by his courtly attentions, a Don Quixote–like fixation that portends his descent into more incapacitating delusions. Rubiao’s fantasies are irresistible, and Machado de Assis periodically intrudes with expressions of authorial anxiety, wishing for instance that he could write in a style as straightforward as novelist Henry Fielding’s. This shaggy dog story remains one for the ages. (July)