Avaliação
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908)
Machado de Assis was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a house painter and a Portuguese woman. Machado received little formal education. He learned French from a neighboring baker. Machado worked as a printer's apprentice at the National Press, and later he was a salesman and a proof-reader in a bookshop. During these years he started to write stories, poems, and novels. He began to gain fame as a poet in his mid-twenties, and by the late 1860s he had become a successful Brazilian man of letters.
He is widely regarded as Brazil's greatest novelist. Machado wrote nine novels, eight short-story collections, four volumes of poetry, 13 plays, and numerous critical essays. He often satirized middle-class values and behavior. Machado de Assis was an astute observer of the human mind and he revealed its dark sides. He shared with many authors of his period a reformist concern, but his view was colored with irony and skepticism.
His most famous novel, Dom Casmurro, is marvelously humorous, and sinister. Machado creates provoking unresolvable doubts in the reader's mind. It's no wonder that he is considered Brazil's greatest novelist and Capitu his most fascinating heroine; like the Mona Lisa, much lies hidden behind a superb portrait. If you've never heard of Machado de Assis, do yourself a favor and seek him out. He's well worth the effort.
Disponível em: (Adapted)
(Adapted) Acesso em: 15 jun. 2006
1. (UFSC) Select the proposition(s) in which both statements are CORRECT, according to the text.
(1) Machado became a recognized author in the second half of the 19th century. Machado became a recognized poet when he was 20 years old.
(2) Machado’s first occupation was in a