Novel
O cabeleira
Not translated into English
Franklin Távora · 1876
Opening lines
A historia de Pernambuco offerece-nos exemplos de heroismo e grandeza moral que podem figurar nos fastos dos maiores povos da antiguidade sem desdoural-os.
The history of Pernambuco offers us examples of heroism and moral greatness that could stand in the annals of the greatest peoples of antiquity without dishonouring them.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from literaturabrasileira.ufsc.br
Synopsis
In eighteenth-century Pernambuco, José Gomes grows up between a gentle mother, Joana, who would like to keep him on the right path, and a father, Joaquim Gomes, a hardened killer who takes him off to live as an outlaw and teaches him to kill birds, then men. Having become, under his influence, a feared bandit, the man known as the Cabeleira happens one day to meet Luisinha, his childhood friend, again on a deserted beach: to live with her, he would have to give up murder and theft.
Context
The novel appeared in 1876, preceded by a preface in the form of a letter in which its author called for literature written from the North, more faithful in his view to Brazilian culture. It presents itself as a true story, drawn from popular ballads and from the regional history of Fernandes Gama, and its hero, like the hero's father, is regarded as a forerunner of the cangaceiros. It is ranked among the pioneering novels of Northeastern regionalism; it was made into a film in 1963 and adapted as a comic book in 2008.
Who it is for
A short novel in Portuguese, with no French translation; the vocabulary of the sertão is dense in it, and the preface clarifies the project.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the starting point of the regionalist literature of the Brazilian Nordeste, and adapted for the cinema in 1963.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.