Dom Casmurro: uma história dos subúrbios

Abstract

Focusing on the urban transformation of Rio de Janeiro in the second half of the nineteenth century, this article discusses some aspects of the novel Dom Casmurro (1899), written by Machado de Assis, in an attempt to take into account the possibility of the character Bento Santiago write the as a prelude to something greater volume to be developed later by himself, “the narrative of the suburbs”. Will reflect the extent to which his story was not only a good “preface”, or rather a great writing exercise with not only “casmurrices” but shaping up as a faithful outline of some of the major historical and social situations that occurred in the nineteenth century Brazil.