Senhora: Profile of a Woman

Alencar was Brazil's first great novelist, at a time when the country was still developing its own identity. "Senhora", published in 1875, is one of his best. Alencar was nothing if not prolific, he wrote dozens of novels, plays, and poetry, and worked as a journalist and politician. "Senhora" is interesting because it came out during a period when so little serious fiction featured strong women as protagonists. Aurelia, the title character, is a beautiful young woman who comes into a huge inheritance in 19th-century Rio de Janeiro and overturns social conventions by buying the husband of her choice. So the story's real depth and primary point of discussion revolves around Brazil's upper class norms, women's social roles, and the power of wealth. It is interesting in this regard. Alencar's Romanticism is rooted in a sort of pre-revolutionary distaste (if not disgust) for established social conventions. He was a wealthy intellectual criticizing his own milieu. Perhaps his descriptions of wealth --pages dedicated to the delicate inlays in a single piece of furniture or the passion of a waltz-- are overwrought, and may strike some readers as being born of Alencar's lust for upper class pursuits, rather than of any detached criticism of them. Readers must be prepared for these careful descriptions of wealthy follies, for by modern standards very little happens in the story. Alencar was a Romanticist, meaning that he cultivated in his writing elements of anti-classicism, of free-form emotion, and of descriptions of settings rather than tracing the chronology of a plot. This is a story driven on one level by its complicated prose and on another by its social criticism and the depth of its characters. Modern readers looking for plot and action may not have the patience for this book, and may also find the ending (called a "surprising twist" by some critics) to be a bit of a cop-out. It's as though Alencar didn't want to write any longer or didn't want to disappoint what he imagined to be a primarily female audience thirsting for romantic closure.

A read this book a long time ago, in high school, and enjoyed it very much. For those of you who know nothing about brazilian literature, here goes a little profile about the author: "JOSÉ MARTINIANO DE ALENCAR was born in Mecejana, Ceará, on 1 May, 1829, and died in Rio de Janeiro on 12 December, 1877. He studied law in São Paulo and Olinda, and then threw himself into the journalistic world of Rio de Janeiro. He later entered politics becoming a deputy and eventually Minister of Justice. The refusal of the Emperor, however, to accept his nominatiou as senator caused him to retire from public life. One of the most prolific of Brazilian writers, José de Alencar was at the same time journalist, novelist, dramatist and poet. He was widely read in French literature, and romantic writers such as Dumas, Chateaubriand and Hugo had a profound influence on him. To the romantic mood of the day he added a fervent patriotism, which found its ideal subject in the history of his conntry, and especially in the life and legends of the Brazilian Indian, whose champion he became (c. f. Gonçalves Dias in poetry). His interest ranged the whole length and breadth of Brazil, and there are few regions of that vast country which did not provide subjectmatter for his pen. He practically created the Brazilian historical novel, and achieved wide popularity with the publication of such works as O Guarani (Rio, 1857); As Minas de Prata (Rio, 1862); and Iracema (Rio, 1865). The exuberance of his frankly avowed romanticism and a pompous, declamatory style are now very foreign to our modem taste, but his gifts as a story-teller and his patriotic spirit will always ensure him a place among Brazil's most popular writers. Other major works: O Gaúcho (Rio, 1870); O Tronco do Ipê (Rio, 1871); Ubirajara (Rio, 1874); Senhora (Rio, 1875)."

This book is amazing! Very romantic in a unique, intense, vivid, ironic, and poetic way. The author geniously has created a most remarkable woman whom, through money, will buy her ex into marriage with hope that he will be torn enough between love and their game of ironic humiliation to break out his profound feelings of love for her and see how hers painfully never faded. an excellent novel, one of the best i have ever read!-----Esta novela es increíble! Es MUY romantica de una manera única, intensa, brillante, irónica y poetica. El autor ha creado geniosamente a una mujer extraordinaria, quien tras el dinero comprará el matrimonio con su ex, con esperanza que el amor y su juego de humiliación irónica le desgarrará y librará sus sentimientos profundos de amor para ella y verá cómo los de ella nunca habían desaparecido. (how's that translation? ¿qué tal la traducción?)