Language and Narration

The Theme in the Work

Brás Cubas defines himself in chapter I as a deceased author, and in chapter IV he sets out the book's reading pact: a philosophy of uneven moods, austere at one moment and playful the next. In chapter IX, he ties the delirium to his birth through a chain of transitions that starts with Virgília and arrives at October 20, 1805.

The narrator comments on his own book. In chapter XXII, he refuses to narrate Europe, because memoirs carry only the substance of life, and he shortens the chapter because his public is in-12. In chapter XXVII, he corrects Pascal and calls man a thinking erratum. In chapter XLV, he lists the notes for a chapter he does not write, and in chapter LV the chapter shrinks to the names of the lovers and lines of dots.

From chapter LXXI on, the book speaks of itself to the reader: Brás regrets it, blames the reader, and compares the style to drunkards; chapter LXXII imagines the bibliomaniac; chapter XCVIII announces that he will suppress a chapter that remains written; and chapter CXXXVIII answers a critic that death does not grow old.

The book also corrects and interrupts itself. In chapter VII, Brás counts the twenty or thirty minutes of his delirium and declares that no one has yet reported their own, so science will be grateful to him. In chapter XIII, he skips over school, recalls Master Ludgero, and breaks off, asking to set down the pen and not to hurry the events. In chapter XVI, he corrects what he said in chapter XIV: Marcela was not dying for love of Xavier, she was living. In chapter CVIII, he calls the note a document fit for analysis, refuses to analyze it, and describes what he felt in pairs of opposites: it was fear and was not fear, it was pity and was not pity.

The narrator treats form itself as a subject: the leap over Europe, the chapter made of dots, and the suppressed chapter that stays in the book are announced to the reader before or after they happen. The same gesture carries two readings: that of a method that declares itself, and that of a pose by someone who carefully chooses what frankness shows. The book does not decide between them.

Where It Appears

• Chapter I: Brás Cubas declares that he is not properly a deceased author but a deceased author, for whom the grave was another cradle, and opens the memoirs at the end because the writing stays fresher that way.
• Chapter IV: Brás defines the book as a work utterly philosophical, of an uneven philosophy, now austere, soon playful, more than a pastime and less than an apostolate, and returns to the plaster after citing Cavour and Lucrezia Borgia.
• Chapter VII: Brás counts the twenty or thirty minutes of his delirium and declares that no one has yet reported their own, so science will thank him.
• Chapter IX: Brás ties the delirium to his birth through a chain of transitions: the delirium began in Virgília's presence, she was his great sin of youth, and from there, from childhood to birth, one arrives at October 20, 1805.
• Chapter XIII: Brás skips over school, recalls Master Ludgero, and breaks off, asking to put down the pen and not to rush the events, before jumping to 1822.
• Chapter XVI: Brás corrects what he said in chapter XIV: Marcela was not dying for love of Xavier, she was living, and the correction opens a reflection that he himself calls immoral and obscure.
• Chapter XXII: Brás refuses to narrate Europe because a travel diary would be another book, and, in shortening the chapter, says that his public is not folio but in-12.
• Chapter XXVII: Brás corrects Pascal, calls man a thinking erratum, and says each stage of life is an edition that corrects the previous one, until the definitive one, which the publisher gives away free to the worms.
• Chapter XLV: Brás lists in a single sentence the wake and burial of his father and says they are notes for a sad and vulgar chapter that he does not write.
• Chapter LV: The chapter reduces to the alternation of the names Brás Cubas and Virgília, each followed by lines of dots, and writes without words the dialogue of the two announced in the previous chapter.
• Chapter LXXI: Brás confesses that he is starting to regret the book and says its greatest defect is the reader, who is in a hurry, while the book and the style lurch like drunkards.
• Chapter LXXII: Brás considers suppressing the previous chapter and imagines a bibliomaniac who, seventy years from now, with a unique copy, peers at the page without finding the absurdity and is content with possessing it.
• Chapter XCVIII: Brás says he feels like suppressing the chapter he is writing, but reminds the placid reader that he writes his own memoirs and not theirs.
• Chapter CVIII: Brás calls the note a document fit for analysis, refuses to analyze it, and tells what he felt in pairs: it was fear and was not fear, it was pity and was not pity.
• Chapter CXXXVIII: Brás explains to a critic that death does not grow old and that the style of the memoirs changes with the phase of life being narrated.

Passages

The reading pact is made of negations.

Life corrects itself with each edition, and the book is that of a dead man.

The narrator describes his own style.

The suppressed chapter stays in the book.

The explanation of the style comes in reply to a critic.