Machado de Assis' Reception and the Transformation of the Modern European Novel

Abstract

Abstract: This essay is concerned with Machado’s contribution to the evolution of the modern novel’s form. My thesis is that, because of the innovations that he wrought, Machado now needs to be considered as one of the modern novel’s great masters. In making this argument, I stress three points: 1) that Machado knew the European novel very well and that he knew in his own mind how he could improve it; 2) that Machado did improve it, breaking new ground for its form and structure in a series of works published between 1880 and 1908; and 3) that we should now rank Machado de Assis among the greatest practitioners of the modern novel and that we can regard him as the “missing link” between Flaubert and Proust.