The book Memorias Postumas de Bras Cubas by J.M. Machado de Assis is a wonderful book that very much reminds me of Stern’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman but instead of trying to tell the story of his life and failing in birth, this story begins with death. How could it be that a story is being written after death? There is no explanation and this book, like Tristram Shandy, pushes the boundaries of literature of its time and has a fine mixture of acute self awareness and even science fiction. Death causes one to take another look at one’s life, and this book tells the story of great missed opportunities and high expectations, but finally results in disappointment for the hero.
Karl Marx once said that history repeats itself twice, as a comedy and then as a tragedy. The first book, The Death of Artemio Cruz, was the tragedy and Memorias Posthumas is the comedy because this book is filled with humor in its depiction of life in the second half of the 19th century. In this case, like the first novel that we discussed this week, we learnt something about the nature of human life, which is the most important thing of all. This book, like every masterpiece, is ever fresh, and as the editor of the Hebrew edition says, “It gives a deeper humanistic meaning to the biblical saying, ‘All is vanity and a striving after wind.’”
Next week we shall deal with English satires with the hope of showing how they influenced their time and what they are based on.