Bravo! Magazine has compiled a list with one-hundred essential books in Portuguese. Similar lists such as Harold Bloom’s also brings complications, but theoretically should be welcomed for it fosters discussion and study. How can a list with Brazilian authors exclude Adelino Magalhães, Affonso Romano de Sant’Anna, Carlos Nejar, Nélida Piñon and Salim Miguel and instead include Augusto de Campos, Haroldo de Campos, Fernando Gabeira and Visconde de Taunay amongst the one-hundred works most representative of Brazilian literature?
I am not questioning the authors mentioned but the method. In fact, I am a fan of Visconde de Taunay’s documentary work, important character in the romance “Avante Soldado: Para trás.”
A handful of times, the unqualified press critiques literary works. If one needs to list the one-hundred most influential works, then choose twenty authors and five of their pieces and consider it done.
These authors should include: Alberto da Costa e Silva, Ivan Junqueira, Lima Barreto, Geraldo Ferraz, Benito Barreto, Otávio de Faria, Esdras do Nascimento, Mário Chamie, Josué Guimarães, Luiz Antonio de Assis Brasil, Moacyr Scliar e Raimundo Carrero – all of whom were left out of the Bravo!’s list.
Some of the list’s strengths are including Father Antonio Vieira who came to Brazil from Portugal when he was six years old and Ukraine-born Clarice Lispector who migrated when she was seven.
It’s worth noting the authors whom I suppose must have been used as bibliographic references. In the last forty years, not one of them has written a piece that has added to our literature. It’s as if, during the Paraguayan War, a similar list were compiled exclusively with authors from the 18th century.
Pity the literature which depends on a book such as “O Que é Isso Companheiro?” by Fernando Gabeira, documentary born out of political praxis urgency, which by no means should replace an established work.
If the criteria leads to works other than romance, short stories and narratives such as juvenile literature (another omission), then we must remember Gylberto Freyre, Carlos Guilherme Mota and Augusto Meyer.
I suspect that is what caused the insertion of Euclides who is neither a poet nor romance or short story writer, but whose “Os Sertões” could not have been excluded.
The list gets some authors right but not their works. “Seminário dos Ratos” is not Lygia Fagundes Telles’ best piece. The haste with which the list was elaborated did not go unnoticed. Paulo Leminski’s romance “Catatau” is cited as a reference when he should have been mentioned in the poetry section.
Other books by Rubem Fonseca are better than his inaugural work “A Coleira do Cão;” as it also happened with João Ubaldo Ribeiro because “Sargento Getúlio” is superior to “Viva o Povo Brasileiro.”
In sum, the list does not serve as a guide to our literature. Perhaps, it should have been made by genre thus avoiding the habitual mistakes and injustices inherent in such task.
100 essential Brazilian books, according to Bravo! Magazine
Title and authors name separated by comma.
Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, Machado de Assis
Dom Casmurro, Machado de Assis
Vidas Secas, Graciliano Ramos
Os Sertões, Euclides da Cunha
Grande Sertão: Veredas, Guimarães Rosa
A Rosa do Povo, Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Libertinagem, Manuel Bandeira
Lavoura Arcaica, Raduan Nassar
A Paixão Segundo G.H., Clarice Lispector
Macunaíma – o Herói Sem Nenhum Caráter, Mário de Andrade
Lira Dos Vinte Anos, Álvares de Azevedo
O Tempo e o Vento, Erico Verissimo
Morte e Vida Severina, João Cabral de Melo Neto
Vestido de Noiva, Nelson Rodrigues
Serafim Ponte Grande, Oswald de Andrade
Crônica da Casa Assassinada, Lúcio Cardoso
Os Escravos, Castro Alves
O Guarani, José de Alencar
Romanceiro da Inconfidência, Cecília Meireles
Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, Lima Barreto
São Bernardo, Graciliano Ramos
Laços de Família, Clarice Lispector
Sermões, Padre Vieira
As Meninas, Lygia Fagundes Telles
Sagarana, Guimarães Rosa
Nova Antologia Poética, Mário Quintana
Navalha Na Carne, Plínio Marcos
A Obscena Senhora D, Hilda Hilst
Nova Antologia Poética, Vinícius de Moraes
Brás, Bexiga e Barra Funda, Antônio de Alcântara Machado
Paulicéia Desvairada, Mário de Andrade
I-Juca Pirama, Gonçalves Dias
Baú de Ossos, Pedro Nava
A Vida Como Ela É, Nelson Rodrigues
A Alma Encantadora Das Ruas, João do Rio
Estrela da Manhã, Manuel Bandeira
Obra Poética, Gregório de Matos
Gabriela, Cravo e Canela, Jorge Amado
Marília de Dirceu, Tomás Antônio Gonzaga
Claro Enigma, Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Mar Absoluto, Cecília Meireles
Malagueta, Perus e Bacanaço, João Antônio
O Pagador de Promessas, Dias Gomes
Noite Na Taverna, Álvares de Azevedo
Romance D’A Pedra do Reino e o Príncipe do Sangue do Vai-E-Volta, Ariano Suassuna
Bagagem, Adélia Prado
Viva o Povo Brasileiro, João Ubaldo Ribeiro
Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias, Manuel Antônio de Almeida
Cartas Chilenas, Tomás Antônio Gonzaga
Canaã, Graça Aranha
Memórias Sentimentais de João Miramar, Oswald de Andrade
A Coleira do Cão, Rubem Fonseca
Espumas Flutuantes, Castro Alves
Um Copo de Cólera, Raduan Nassar
A Estrela Sobe, Marques Rebelo
Poema Sujo, Ferreira Gullar
Lucíola, José de Alencar
O Ateneu, Raul Pompéia
Fogo Morto, José Lins do Rego
O Quinze, Rachel de Queiroz
Seminário Dos Ratos, Lygia Fagundes Telles
Invenção de Orfeu, Jorge de Lima
Terras do Sem Fim, Jorge Amado
Broquéis, Cruz e Souza
O Encontro Marcado, Fernando Sabino
A Moreninha, Joaquim Manuel de Macedo
Morangos Mofados, Caio Fernando Abreu
O Ex-Mágico, Murilo Rubião
O Picapau Amarelo, Monteiro Lobato
As Metamorfoses, Murilo Mendes
Harmada, João Gilberto Noll
Ópera Dos Mortos, Autran Dourado
O Cortiço, Aluísio Azevedo
A Escrava Isaura, Bernardo Guimarães
200 Crônicas Escolhidas, Rubem Braga
O Vampiro de Curitiba, Dalton Trevisan
O Coronel e o Lobisomem, José Cândido de Carvalho
Os Ratos, Dyonélio Machado
O Analista de Bagé, Luis Fernando Verissimo
Febeapá, Stanislaw Ponte Preta
O Homem e Sua Hora, Mário Faustino
Catatau, Paulo Leminski
Os Cavalinhos de Platiplanto, José J. Veiga
Avalovara, Osman Lins
Eu, Augusto Dos Anaw6kx
O Que É Isso, Companheiro?, Fernando Gabeira
O Braço Direito, Otto Lara Resende
Quarup, Antonio Callado
A Senhorita Simpson, Sérgio Sant’Anna
Tremor de Terra, Luiz Vilela
Zero, Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
Galvez, Imperador do Acre, Márcio Souza
Viva Vaia, Augusto de Campos
Galáxias, Haroldo de Campos
Inocência, Visconde de Taunay
Poesias, Olavo Bilac
O Tronco, Bernardo Élis
O Uraguai, Basílio da Gama
Juca Mulato, Menotti Del Picchia
Contos Gauchescos, João Simões Lopes Neto
Deonísio da Silva, PhD, is a writer and professor of Brazilian literature at Estácio de Sá University. His most recent books include the novel Goethe e Barrabás and the essay A Língua Nossa de Cada Dia (Our Everyday Language). He writes for Observatório da Imprensa where this article appeared originally.
Translated from the Portuguese by Aldo Jansel. You may reach him at ajans001@fiu.edu.
