Novel
Mulatto
O mulato
Aluísio Azevedo · 1881
Opening lines
Era um dia abafadiço e aborrecido.
It was a stifling, tedious day.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
Raimundo, the natural son of a Portuguese merchant of Maranhão and of Domingas, a slave on his farm, was entrusted as a child to his uncle Manuel Pescada, in São Luís, then raised in Portugal, where he became a doctor of law. Back in Brazil, he travels to Maranhão to learn of his origins and settle his inheritance. He falls in love with his cousin Ana Rosa, Manuel's daughter; but the uncle refuses the marriage, and Raimundo suspects that his colour and his birth are the cause. In the shadows, Canon Diogo is at work.
Context
The novel appeared in 1881. It is seen as the first Brazilian naturalist novel and one of the first books to deal head-on with unions between whites and blacks and with racism in São Luís; Prepara Enem reports that it scandalised society in Maranhão, and Toda Matéria notes its dark tone, which rejects the romantic convention of the triumph of good. It was translated into French by Manoel Gahisto, published by Plon, in 1961, and appeared in English under the title Mulatto.
Who it is for
A novel in Portuguese, translated into French in 1961; an early naturalism, in which colour prejudice drives the plot.
Prizes and reception
The first naturalist novel in Brazil, which made colour prejudice the heart of its plot.