Machado de Assis: Loose Cuttings

I use the title of the compilation of writings by Machado de Assis, Papéis Avulsos, to give the name to the essay presented here. The collection was published in 1882 and brings together twelve short stories previously published in periodicals. From the magazine A Estação came “O Alienista” and “Teoria do Medalhão” (1881-1882); “D. Benedita” and “The Ring of Polycrates” (1882). Among the short stories signed by pseudonyms are “A Chinela Turkish”, in A Época (1875) initialed by Manassés; “Na arca”, in O Cruzeiro (1878), subscribed by Eleazar and “Uma Visita de Alcibíades” in Jornal das Famílias (1876) with the code name Victor de Paula. The largest number of short stories were transported from the newspaper Gazeta de Notícias, all from 1882: “The secret of Bonzo”, “The loan”, “A sereníssima republic”, “The mirror” (1882) and “Verba testamentária” (1882). As well as the volume of diverse writings, I present various excerpts from “the flying pages of journalism”, with themes recurring to the author and his works, in the second half of the 19th century.

KEYWORDS:
Machado de Assis; press; newspaper; stories