Joaquim Maria Machado De Assis: 30 books

"Her gaze was not absent, as it had been shortly before; instead, it was fixed on the flowers on the wallpaper that lined the room. She noticed, for the first time, that the flowers were daisies. And she shifted her gaze from one to the next, to see if the pattern was the same, and she found...

It's Christmas Eve, 1861 or 1862. Seventeen-year-old Nogueira, a native of the provinces living in Rio de Janeiro for his studies, has arranged with a neighbor to go to midnight mass. Into the parlor where he is waiting up alone walks Dona Conceição, the thirty-year-old wife of the...

A classified ad is offering a large reward for the return of a lost greyhound. Mendonça, a single young doctor who has found the dog, makes his way to a house on Rua de Mata-cavalos, where the reward he ultimately collects is much different from the monetary one mentioned in the classifieds.Translated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Juan LePuenGenre: short storyLength: 9,000 words

Baron Sigismundo de Kernoberg, a single Swede of thirty-nine, wedded to science alone, suddenly finds himself roped into giving botany lessons to a neighbor's lovely young niece. Translated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Juan LePuen Genre: theater (comedy in one act) Length: 6,900 words

"And over the years, in other loves, more real and longer lasting, he never experienced a feeling like that of that Sunday on Rua da Lapa, when he was fifteen years old." Fifteen-year-old Inácio has been sent to work as a runner for the lawyer Borges. Borges's wife, the full-figured...

"At forty, he was disabused of his ambitions, but his temper remained the same, and, his conjugal vocation notwithstanding, he still couldn’t find a bride. More than one would have would have accepted him with great pleasure; he was so circumspect he lost them all."Genre: short storyLength: 4,000 wordsTranslated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Juan LePuen

In Montevideo, on shore leave, a naval officer comes across a burning dressmaker's shop. Ever the chivalrous gentleman, he ignores the flames and the smoke and rushes up the stairs to the burning workshop. Translated (2012) by Juan LePuen Genre: short story Length: 1,800 words

Máximo, an impoverished young poet and student, inherits a fortune on the unexpected death of his godfather. His own fortunes, however, are not greatly improved.Genre: short storyLength: 5,400 wordsTranslated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Juan LePuen

When Luís Negreiros returns home from the office one evening, he finds a fine watch and chain on a table in his bedroom. The watch isn't his and can't be his young and beautiful wife Clarinha's, either. Whose is it then? Luís Negreiros's suspicions are immediately aroused. Translated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Juan LePuen Genre: short story Length: 2,820 words

"'Now, you’ve played cards with so many people, but only once, a long time ago, have you played with me, écarté. Isn’t écarté the name of that game you taught me? Let’s play a game.' Xavier started laughing."So says Dona Paula to her husband Xavier before they start playing...

"People recall an abyss with pleasure; it is impossible to recall a bore without dread. Sooner the Tarpeian Rock than an author of ill repute."Genre: short storyLength: 1,500 wordsTranslated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Juan LePuen

The aging clerk Coimbra no longer believes in much. Not even his long-standing faith in the lottery--"I'm no longer of the age to hope," he admits--is entirely steadfast. He resolves, then, to buy one last ticket, for the drawing for the huge sum of five hundred contos.Translated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Juan LePuenGenre: short storyLength: 5,000 words

"I felt an acute pain in the top part of my skull; a foreign object went in to the inside of my brain. I know nothing else. I think I fainted. When I came to, the laboratory was empty. Father and daughter had disappeared. I had the impression there was a curtain in front of me. A loud and hoarse voice...

Martinha, in her forties, finds herself alone. She has only the old aunt she lives with. One day, going through the mementos of her youth, she comes across a dried flower and reminisces about the circumstances in which, rare, beautiful, and fresh, it was given to her.Genre: short storyLength: 2,000 wordsTranslated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Juan LePuen