Quincas Borba
The events in the order the book tells them.
Barbacena and the inheritance
- Chapters I to XII1
Rubião at the window
The book opens with Rubião, who a year earlier was a schoolteacher in Barbacena and is now rich, at the window of the Botafogo house in Rio. He looks out at the bay and counts as his own the house, the hill and the sky.
- Chapters I to XII2
The nurse and the philosopher
In 1867, in Barbacena, Rubião closes his school and for nearly six months looks after the philosopher Quincas Borba, who has fallen ill and has no other friend besides Rubião, to whom he is bound by the philosopher's frustrated courtship of the widow Piedade, Rubião's sister.
- Chapters I to XII3
Humanitas and the potatoes
Quincas Borba explains Humanitas through the death of his aunt, crushed by a carriage: there is no death, and war preserves, like the tribe that wipes out another to keep the potatoes. Rubião agrees to be a disciple without understanding.
- Chapters XIII to XXVIII4
The will and the dog
On the philosopher's death, the will makes Rubião universal heir, on one condition: keep the dog Quincas Borba, treat it as a person, bury it among flowers, and keep its bones in an urn.
- Chapters XIII to XXVIII5
To the victor, the potatoes
At home, now an heir, Rubião finally understands the allegory of the starving tribes and sees himself as the victor who keeps the potatoes, to the point of thinking of a signet ring bearing the motto.
The arrival at Court and the temptation
- Chapters XIII to XXVIII6
On the train, the Palhas
On the train to Court, Rubião tells Cristiano Palha and his wife, Sofia, about the inheritance. Palha, who lit up on hearing that Rubião would stay in the city, reflects on learning the sum and asks for discretion.
- Chapters XXIX to XL7
The declaration by moonlight
In Santa Teresa, at the Palhas' house, Rubião, who for many months has been reserved, loses his restraint in the garden under the moon and makes Sofia a proposal that the narrator compares to buying her soul and body, while the chaste stars listen to it all.
- Chapters XLI to XLIX8
Father Mendes
Major Siqueira enters the garden and sees Rubião's and Sofia's hands held together. She invents the anecdote of Father Mendes to cover the delay, and Rubião, awkwardly, can only keep repeating yes and sustains the lie.
- Chapters L to LVII9
Palha's debt
Sofia tells Palha what happened. He minimizes the affair until he confesses that he owes a great deal of money to Rubião, and the narrator reveals that the note Sofia sent Rubião with the strawberries, inviting him to dinner, had been drafted by Palha.
The Atalaia, jealousy and the partnership
- Chapters LVIII to LXVII10
Five contos for the Atalaia
After rescuing a boy from under a carriage on Rua da Ajuda, Rubião puts five contos into the Atalaia, Camacho's newspaper. Camacho is the politician who won him over and wants to hold him at Court.
- Chapters LXVIII to LXXVI11
The hour invented on the beach
Rubião becomes Palha's partner without understanding the figures. At the ball, Carlos Maria declares to Sofia that he spent an hour between the sea and her house, an hour he invented and which she then repeats from memory.
- Chapters LXXVII to LXXXIX12
The tilbury driver of Praia Formosa
In a tilbury, on the way back from Praia Formosa and Saúde, a driver tells of a young man with moustaches and large eyes, from Rua dos Inválidos, who went into a house on Rua da Harmonia, where a lady in a veil arrived later. Rubião, listening wide-eyed, begins to fear the young man is Carlos Maria and the lady is Sofia.
- Chapters CIII to CXIII13
The letter and the mandarin
Rubião found a letter in Sofia's hand to Carlos Maria and gives it back to her at Flamengo. It was only a commission's circular, and Sofia, angry with herself, breaks the porcelain mandarin.
- Chapters CIII to CXIII14
The narrator defends the driver
The narrator tells the reader that the driver gave no names and told no true story: the slander was the reader's and Rubião's, who tied the loose ends together on their own.
- Chapters CIII to CXIII15
The ten contos
Away from Flamengo, Rubião signs for five contos in Sofia's subscription and asks Palha for ten contos; Palha, who keeps his securities, ends up handing over the money.
- Chapters CXIV to CXVIII16
Maria Benedita's engagement
Rubião learns that Maria Benedita's fiancé is Carlos Maria, the young man of his jealousy. The girl had loved him in silence, and Dona Fernanda drew the confession from her and arranged the marriage.
- Chapters CXIX to CXXXII17
The bank that did not exist
Once the couple have left for Europe, Palha proposes dissolving the partnership, claiming he is going to run a bank. The bank did not exist: he prospers through shares, bonds and war supplies and already thinks of a mansion and a barony.
The Imperial Delirium
- Chapters CXXXIII to CXLVII18
The diners
The legend of the rich disciple of a philosopher attracts dinner guests, who dine at six sharp, with or without the host. The Botafogo table becomes an open table for anyone who helps himself to it.
- Chapters CXXXIII to CXLVII19
Napoleon III's beard
In January 1870, the French barber Lucien leaves Rubião only the goatee and moustaches, copying the bust of Napoleon III, and Rubião answers him in Portuguese, believing he speaks French.
- Chapters CXLVIII to CLIX20
The lover in the coupé
In Sofia's coupé, with the curtains lowered, Rubião speaks to her as a lover, recalls a meeting that never took place, asks her to call him Luís, and promises Palha a dukedom.
- Chapters CLX to CLXXI21
The house on Rua do Príncipe
Palha installs Rubião and the dog in a little house on Rua do Príncipe, and the friends of Botafogo, the dinner guests, do not follow them there.
- Chapters CLX to CLXXI22
Carlos Maria's drawing room
Carlos Maria and Maria Benedita return from Europe, and Rubião bursts into their drawing room, announces the fall of the Ministry and offers a portfolio to Carlos Maria.
The fall and the return to Barbacena
- Chapters CLXXII to CLXXXI23
Camacho's coldness
On returning from the delirium, Rubião seeks out his friends, but Camacho, who had talked so much with him before, receives him coldly, and Major Siqueira shows him to the door with the story of a carriage.
- Chapters CLXXXII to CCI24
The sanatorium
After Rubião walks down Rua da Ajuda gesturing to an invisible empress, followed by street boys, Palha, with Dr. Falcão, commits him to a sanatorium.
- Chapters CLXXXII to CCI25
The ball at Botafogo
In October, Sofia opens the Botafogo salons with a ball and wears a necklace that is one of Rubião's first gifts. He is confined in a sanatorium, and Palha, when liquidating his assets, collected only three contos and two hundred.
- Chapters CLXXXII to CCI26
The return to Barbacena
Rubião vanishes from the sanatorium and returns to Barbacena with the dog. There he shouts the motto he had forgotten, to the victor, the potatoes, and a storm breaks over the two of them.
- Chapters CLXXXII to CCI27
The emperor's death
With a fever, in the house of his comadre Angélica, Rubião dies a few days later, placing on his head a crown only he can see and leaving the motto unfinished.
- Chapters CLXXXII to CCI28
The dog's death
The dog falls ill, runs off after its master and is found dead in the street. The narrator tells the reader to weep for the two dead, if he has tears, or to laugh, if he only has laughter, since it is the same thing.