Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is the great Brazilian author of Philosopher or Dog` and Epitaph of a Small Winner, whose work is admired by writers as different as Salman Rushdie, Carlos Fuentes, Woody Allen and Susan Sontag. Taken from his mature period, these dazzling stories echo Poe and Gogol, anticipate Joyce, and have been compared to the writing of Chekhov, Maupassant and Henry James, yet his modern sensibility and clear-eyed humour remain utterly unique.

‘Machado de Assis was a literary force, transcending nationality and language, comparable certainly to Flaubert, Hardy, or James’ - (New York Times Book Review)
‘‘He was one of the few writers who not only received a state funeral, but actually deserved it’`. (Louis de Bernières)
‘John Gledson’s zesty translation and introduction are great strengths of the collection ... The atmosphere of Rio de Janeiro in the late 1800s is evoked ... Yet many of these stories could have been written about our own times’ (Daily Telegraph)

A szerzőről:
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was born and lived his whole life in Rio de Janeiro. The son of poor parents, and mulatto, he worked his way to a successful career as a civil servant and a writer. He was revered (though not understood) in his lifetime, and was unanimously elected President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters when it was founded in 1896. He is still universally regarded as the greatest Brazilian writer.