Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto

Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (born May 13, 1881, Rio de Janeiro—died Nov. 1, 1922, Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian novelist, journalist, short-story writer, and an aggressive social critic, who re-created in caricatural fashion the city and society of Rio de Janeiro at the turn of the century.

Lima Barreto was an active journalist throughout his adult life. His often vitriolic social analysis and criticism are more direct and less refined than was the case with his older contemporary Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. A lifelong carioca (resident of Rio), he depicts in his novels the main events of the new republic in Brazil (principally the 1890s and the first decade of the 20th century) and the life of that period. His ironic humour is evident in the creation of melancholic, quixotic protagonists who are unable to cope with mechanized urban society, militarism, and governmental organization.

Lima Barreto’s best known novels include Vida e Morte de M.J. Gonzaga de Sá (1919; “Life and Death of M.J. Gonzaga de Sá”), Recordações do Escrivão Isaías Caminha (1909; “Memoirs of the Notary Public Isaiah Caminha”), O Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma (1915; “The Sad End of Polycarp Lent”), Numa e a Ninfa (1915; “Numa and the Nymph”), and Clara dos Anjos (composed in 1904 but published posthumously). His life was cut short by alcoholism.