An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here. Featuring ten stories never before translated, dating from 1878 to 1886 (regarded as Joaquim Machado de Assis’s most radically experimental period), this selection of short fiction by Brazil’s greatest author ranges in tone from elegiac and philosophical to impishly ironic. Including the author’s classic essay on world literature–also appearing in English for the first time–and with pieces chosen from his vast body of work for their playfulness, pathos, and stylistic subversion, this collection is an ideal introduction to one of world literature’s greatest talents. (Brazilian Literature Series) The Psychiatrist; The Immortal; The Dictionary; The Academies of Siam; The Priest, or The Metaphysics of Style; To live!; Ex Cathedra; Voyage Around Myself; A Lady; Trio in A Minor; Wedding Song; A Visit From Alcibiades; On The Ark: Three (Undiscovered) Chapters from the Book of Genesis.