The Slum (Library of Latin America)

Aluisio Azevedo; Editor-Richard Graham; Editor-Alfonso Romano de Sant'Anna; Translator-David H. Rosenthal

ISBN 10: 0195121864 / ISBN 13: 9780195121865

Published by Oxford University Press, USA, 2000

About this Item

/FIRST PRINTING/BRAND NEW/SAME AS PICTURED/.

Seller Inventory # SKU0004349

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Slum (Library of Latin America)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195121864
• ISBN 13: 9780195121865
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition, FIRST PRINTING.
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

First published in 1890, and undoubtedly Azevedo's masterpiece, The Slum is one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed novels ever written about Brazil. Indeed, its great popularity, realistic descriptions, archetypal situations, detailed local coloring, and overall race-consciousness may well evoke Huckleberry Finn as the novel's North American equivalent. Yet Azevedo also exhibits the naturalism of Zola and the ironic distance of Balzac; while tragic, beautiful, and imaginative as a work of fiction, The Slum is universally regarded as one of the best, or truest, portraits of Brazilian society ever rendered.

This is a vivid and complex tale of passion and greed, a story with many different strands touching on the different economic tiers of society. Mainly, however,The Slum thrives on two intersecting story lines. In one narrative, a penny-pinching immigrant landlord strives to become a rich investor and then discards his black lover for a wealthy white woman. In the other, we witness the innocent yet dangerous love affair between a strong, pragmatic, "gentle giant" sort of immigrant and a vivacious mulatto woman who both live in a tenement owned by said landlord. The two immigrant heroes are originally Portuguese, and thus personify two alternate outsider responses to Brazil. As translator David H. Rosenthal points out in his useful Introduction: one is the capitalist drawn to new markets, quick prestige, and untapped resources; the other, the prudent European drawn moth-like to "the light and sexual heat of the tropics."

A deftly told, deeply moving, and hardscrabble novel that features several stirring passages about life in the streets, the melting-pot realities of the modern city, and the oft-unstable mind of the crowd,The Slum will captivate anyone who might appreciate a more poetic, less political take on the nineteenth-century naturalism of Crane or Dreiser.

Review

Previous praise for the Library of Latin America series:
"Language has always been a barrier to our unity as the Americas, and most especially to our reading of each other's literatures. Now with this new series by Oxford University Press, the library of Latin America is literally open to North Americans and to English speakers everywhere. This is an
important series for anyone who is prevented from knowing the classics of the southern half of this hemisphere because of not knowing the language. !Bienvenidos to these new readers!"--Julia Alvarez
Previous praise for the Library of Latin America series:
"Language has always been a barrier to our unity as the Americas, and most especially to our reading of each other's literatures. Now with this new series by Oxford University Press, the library of Latin America is literally open to North Americans and to English speakers everywhere. This is an
important series for anyone who is prevented from knowing the classics of the southern half of this hemisphere because of not knowing the language. !Bienvenidos to these new readers!"--Julia Alvarez
Previous praise for the Library of Latin America series:
"Language has always been a barrier to our unity as the Americas, and most especially to our reading of each other's literatures. Now with this new series by Oxford University Press, the library of Latin America is literally open to North Americans and to English speakers everywhere. This is an important series for anyone who is prevented from knowing the classics of the southern half of this hemisphere because of not knowing the language. !Bienvenidos to these new readers!"--Julia Alvarez
Previous praise for the Library of Latin America series:

"Language has always been a barrier to our unity as the Americas, and most especially to our reading of each other's literatures. Now with this new series by Oxford University Press, the library of Latin America is literally open to North Americans and to English speakers everywhere. This is an important series for anyone who is prevented from knowing the classics of the southern half of this hemisphere because of not knowing the language. Bienvenidos to these new readers!"--Julia Alvarez

"
Previous praise for the Library of Latin America series:

"Language has always been a barrier to our unity as the Americas, and most especially to our reading of each other's literatures. Now with this new series by Oxford University Press, the library of Latin America is literally open to North Americans and to English speakers everywhere. This is an important series for anyone who is prevented from knowing the classics of the southern half of this hemisphere because of not knowing the language. Bienvenidos to these new readers!"--Julia Alvarez