CLÁSSICOS BRASILEIROS BRAZILIAN CLASSICS - Imprensa Oficial

Brazilian Classics
A selection of authors with works in public domain
16
AFONSO ARINOS
(1868 – 1916)
Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco, after finishing
his Law studies in São Paulo, settled himself in
Ouro Preto. An old colonial city in his home state
of Minas Gerais, there he became a Brazilian
History professor. He went on to found two of his
homeland’s most important institutions: Minas’
Law School and its Public Archive. During the
1890’s, Afonso Arinos collaborated with many
periodicals such as Revista Brasileira and Revista
do Brasil. He also ran the influential Jornal do
Comércio in São Paulo during the infamous
Canudos Campaign, when he defended the
restoration of the recently dethroned Brazilian
imperial family. His newspaper short stories,
based on his knowledge of Minas Gerais’ remote
and isolated regions and peoples, led to the
publication of the book Pelo Sertão (Through the
backlands) (1898). Afonso Arinos is considered
one of the leading figures under the regionalist
literary banner. In 1903 he was received as a
member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
Review
Main works
Excerpt
The haunting
On the margin of the drover’s path, on a big
prairie, where ema-cinnamon and Santowood
grew aplenty, there was a shack. The old haunted
house, with its big rocky stairway leading to the
porch, didn’t seem forsaken. The wanderer would
see it from a distance, with a chapel beside it and
a carved stone cross, blackened, arms wide open,
in constricted prayer to the skies. In that clearing
where the dark green woods didn’t enjoy much
sun, the blurry color of the house would soften
even more the lackluster green of the fields.
And those who were not droving through those
lands would, without a doubt, halt before the
wide open gate, longing to know the reason
why those farm people were so evasive; evasive
to a point of not even showing up behind the
windows when large herds, scathing in front of
the land lots, would trail away.
Facing the roadway, the large tiled ranch, with its
big bracings of rose pepper shrubs and its fences
full of iron rings, would open up, still far from
the main manor, inviting the passerby to shelter
himself. On the ground one could see a stone
trivet with signs of old burned out fires and, here
and there, on the beddy and smooth terrain, lazy
animals wallowed.
The regionalist writer
"In search of the Brazilian theme, alongside the Indianist cycles, the backcountrism, the caboclo theme, the cangaceiro
banditism, the drylands and the gold hunting topics, Afonso Arinos introduced to Brazilian fiction the Central Plateau’s
inhospitable and wild environment. His realist technique was characterized by a search for accurateness and verisimilitude,
without any tendency to stylize and fantasize. Men, mores, the backland landscape are snapshot with a lot of confidence
and in a style of his own, with special mention to the reproduction of typical colloquial speech."
(Afrânio Coutinho e J. Galante de Sousa, Enciclopédia de literatura brasileira)
The nationalist trace
“In everything written by Afonso Arinos, a deep trace of his healthy and conscious nationalism is present. He would affirm:
‘I am the bell who goes to the top of the tower to call you to the Homeland cult’.”
(Paulo Dantas, Os sertões de Euclides e outros sertões)
Os jagunços (1898); Pelo sertão (1898); Notas do dia (1900); A unidade da pátria (1917); O contratador de diamantes
(1917); Lendas e tradições brasileiras (1917); O mestre de campo (1918); Histórias e paisagens (1921).