CLÁSSICOS BRASILEIROS BRAZILIAN CLASSICS - Imprensa Oficial

Brazilian Classics
A selection of authors with works in public domain
88
MANUEL DE OLIVEIRA PAIVA
(1861 – 1892)
If it were not for literary historian Lúcia Miguel
Pereira's persistence and intuition, besides a
fortuitous chain of events, Manuel de Oliveira
Paiva would be today an obscure writer, not
only for the larger audience, but even for
literature teachers and researchers. When
he died at the age of 31, he had published his
first novel, A afilhada (The goddaughter), only
in serial format, besides a few short stories in
newspapers. His path was bound to predestine
him to anonymity. Rescued from limbo, it
became evident that his book, D. Guidinha do
poço, published more than sixty years after his
death, may be regarded as the first novel and a
precursor-of Brazilian regionalism. The density
of this work would only be beaten thirty years
later by Graciliano Ramos's work. Oliveira
Paiva's pioneering contained and temperate
text, where free indirect speech prevails, is also
marked by idiosyncrasy and by an insurgence
against the literary values of his time, when
romantic and realist-naturalist values had taken
deep roots in the Brazilian novel.
Review
Main works
Excerpt
D. Guidinha do poço
In the beginning, there used to exist a farm
called Poço da Moita which was located on the
banks of Curimataú, o tributary to Jaguaribe
river. Established during the last century by
a Portuguese gentleman called Reginaldo
Vanceslau de Oliveira, it was handed down
to children ond grandchildren. Should the
unfortunate event that provides the main subject
for this norrative have not occurred, it would still
be upright today with its iron and sign.
Standing on the left bank of the impetuous
hibernal canal, the farm house had been erected
on top of a hill, from where one could see a large
extension around, especially during the dry
season. During the winter, the overabundance of
foliage would restrict the range of sight […].
Poço da Moita had recently been passed on to
Margarida, Reginaldo's first granddaughter, who
happened to be the Militia Chief 's daughter and
married to Major Joaquim Damião de Barros, a
tall and blunt giant, born in Pernambuco - a good
guy. He had come from Ceorá to buy horses,
and eventually stayed, as he fell in love with and
got hung on Guidinha do poço's fine attributes.
His iris was yellow, with a greenish pupil, which
made him resemble a tupuru.
Descriptive subtlety
"What [ ... ] seems to constitute the most significant feature in this writer is his mastery with which he combined emotional
and material elements, that is, the art of making suggestive whichever detail, of utilizing objective indications to indirectly
reinforce the narrative's point of compass, ar to insinuate the personality of a character."
(Lúcia Miguel Pereira, foreword to D. Guidinha do poço)
Drought as a character
"[ ... ] Manuel de Oliveira Paiva anticipates the presence of a theme that would become one of the strongest topics in the
Brazilian modernist romance. The drought, in the novel, is used as background, through the presence and the performance
of migrants taking up lodge in the farm and the references to the farm and properties general situation."
(Domício Proença Filho, foreword to D. Guidinha do poço)
A afilhada [in feuilleton] (1889); D. Guidinha do poço (1952); A afilhada (1961); Contos (1976).