The story takes place in the early half of the 19th century in Rio de Janeiro and the narrator is a rather spoiled wealthy bachelor who has a love affair with a woman married to his friend. A reader hesitant to take on a story set in South America and published in 1880 need not worry. This novel could have been written yesterday, or maybe tomorrow—after all the narrator claims to be speaking to us from the timeless eternity following his death. The 160 chapters are short and sprightly, the humor fresh and alive, and the setting is not confusing or bogged down with period or geographical detail. We are shocked by the casual mention of slavery but then slavery was not outlawed in Brazil until 1888. It is interesting to note that Machado, while himself not enslaved, had a mixed-race father and a white mother and thus in the US might be considered an African-Brazilian writer.

       Machado was self-educated and obviously well read. There are references to Shakespearian characters such as Lady Macbeth, Hamlet and Coriolanus; the Greek’s poor Prometheus gets mentioned as do historical figures such as Caesar, Napoleon and Cromwell. I found it entertaining to keep my phone at my side so I could quickly search such figures as Seneca to see who they actually were.  Vespasian, anyone? Helvétius?

      An interesting side character is Braz’s “friend” Quincas Borba who during the course of the novel goes through several dramatic transformations as he discovers and then indoctrinates Braz with his philosophy which strongly resembles that of Fredrich Nietzsche. Borba’s sad end predicts that of Nietzsche himself, whose demise happened long after this novel was published.

      You will find desire here, duplicity, politics, a smattering of philosophy, and loss, but you will always be entertained, because as Braz Cubas tells us, he has written this surprisingly modern book with “the pen of Mirth and the ink of Melancholy.”