Novel
Jungle
A Selva
Synopsis
In 1912, Alberto, a young Portuguese monarchist exiled in Belém do Pará after the fall of his cause, lives at the expense of an uncle who eventually has him hired at the Paraíso rubber plantation (seringal) on the Madeira River, owned by Juca Tristão. He goes there with migrants driven from the Northeast by drought and learns the trade of rubber tapper under the protection of the Cearense Firmino. Like the others, he discovers that the tappers, forced to buy everything from the owner's store at prices without competition, sink further into debt every day.
Context
The author had known, as a teenager, this same seringal Paraíso, and he says in his preface that he owed this book to the forest where he had suffered so much. Well received on its publication in 1930, the novel quickly crossed the borders of Portugal: the German translation by Richard A. Bermann, a friend of Stefan Zweig, drew attention to it, and Grasset published in 1938 the French translation by Blaise Cendrars, who added intertitles and took liberties with the text. Leonel Vieira made a film of it in 2002.
Who it is for
A long novel, translated into French as early as 1938 and reissued in paperback, in a translation that takes liberties with the original.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the author's major work, and the book that earned him an international audience.
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