CLÁSSICOS BRASILEIROS BRAZILIAN CLASSICS - Imprensa Oficial

Brazilian Classics
A selection of authors with works in public domain
106
SIMÕES LOPES NETO
(1865 – 1916)
João Simões Lopes Neto was a journalist, an
entrepreneur and a writer. He studied in Rio de
Janeiro and eventually returned to his homeland,
Brazil’s southern border state of Rio Grande
do Sul, where he set his sights on commercial
and industrial opportunities. However, a civil
war, which became known as the Federalist
Revolution, led his businesses to bankruptcy.
After this period of unrest and instability, he
again followed up on his business drive and
set up a cigarette factory. At the same time,
Simões Lopes Neto became a constant presence
in the press ranks and wrote plays defending
the preservation of the gaucho’s tradition. His
recognition as a writer was only achieved after his
death. He is considered one of the great Brazilian
regionalists: perhaps the most important one on
the country’s Southern territory, porous to the
Spanish speaking America’s influence.
Review
Main works
Excerpt
The song of the gaucho
I wasn’t born for the world,
For this cruel world,
I just want to cross the Pampas
On the saddle of my steed;
He, my drop of elegance,
My faithful drop.
I am like the storm,
As a stiff typhoon,
That crushes the grub of the earth,
And ascends to the vastness.
I am the lord of the deserts,
The monarch of loneliness!
When I, with my erect lance,
Stumble on my wild horse,
I fear not the fury
Of such royak scum,
The kings are clouds of dust,
And I long to be a gale.
Gaucho regionalism
“Simões Lopes Neto is recognized as one of the most important names of Brazilian regionalism given the original and
artistic treatment he delivers to regional matters. The book Contos Gauchescos [Gaucho tales] holds a canonic position in
Rio Grande do Sul’s literature. The short stories Trezentas onças, O negro Bonifácio, No manantial and Contrabandista
figure amidst some of the most important ones and have been constantly included in many of the genre’s anthologies.”
(Cláudia Rejane Dornelles Antunes. A poética do conto de Simões Lopes Neto: o exemplo de “O negro Bonifácio”).
The literature of Lopes Neto
“Simão Lopes Neto, as with all writers of genius, created his own world, his own view of the world and this cosmos actually
came to life. In this re-creation, the landscape is no longer the pampas, time is no longer the heroic past, it all actually
converts itself into the space of the language. Simão was singing in a different key in relation to the rest of the Parnassian
chorus; and he did so before time. His prose, the most perfect example of an effort that overblows the author’s goal, is
good literature.”
(Carlos Francisco Sica Diniz, João Simões Lopes Neto: uma biografia)
Cancioneiro guasca (1910); Contos gauchescos (1912); Lendas do sul (1913); Casos do Romualdo (1952); Terra gaúcha
(1955); Contos e lendas (1957).