Álvares de Azevedo | |
|---|---|
 A picture of Azevedo taken during the late 1840s | |
| Born | Manuel Antônio Álvares de Azevedo (1831-09-12)September 12, 1831 |
| Died | April 25, 1852(1852-04-25) (aged 20) Rio de Janeiro,Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Resting place | Saint John the Baptist Cemetery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Pen name | Job Stern |
| Occupation | Poet,playwright,short story writer,essayist,Law student |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Alma mater | University of São Paulo |
| Period | 19th century |
| Genre | Theatre,poetry,essay |
| Literary movement | Romanticism,Ultra-Romanticism |
| Notable works | Noite na Taverna Macário Lira dos Vinte Anos |
| Relatives | Inácio Manuel Álvares de Azevedo (father) Maria Luísa Mota Azevedo (mother) |
Manuel Antônio Álvares de Azevedo (September 12, 1831 – April 25, 1852), affectionately called "Maneco" by his close friends, relatives and admirers, was a BrazilianRomantic poet, short story writer, playwright and essayist, considered to be one of the major exponents ofUltra-Romanticism andGothic literature in Brazil.[1] His works tend to play heavily with opposite notions, such as love and death,platonism and sarcasm,sentimentalism andpessimism, among others, and have a strong influence ofMusset,Chateaubriand,Lamartine,Goethe,Heine and – above all –Byron.
All of his works were published posthumously due to his premature death at only 20 years old after a horse-riding accident.[2] They acquired a strongcult following as years went by, particularly among youths of thegoth subculture.
He is the patron of the second chair of theBrazilian Academy of Letters, and of the ninth chair of thePaulista Academy of Letters.
Azevedo was born into a wealthy family inSão Paulo, on September 12, 1831. Son ofLaw student Inácio Manuel Álvares de Azevedo and Maria Luísa Azevedo (née Mota), a popular myth says that he was given birth in the library of theUniversity of São Paulo Law School, but it actually happened on the house of his maternal grandfather, Severo Mota.[3] He also had a sister and a younger brother, Inácio Manuel Júnior, but he died prematurely in 1835. The death proved to be an early source of shock for the young Álvares.
In 1833, Álvares moved with his family toRio de Janeiro, and in 1840 he enrolled at the Colégio Stoll, in thebairro ofBotafogo.[4] In 1844 he temporarily returned to São Paulo with his uncle, going back to Rio in the following year, where he enrolled at theColégio Pedro II. There he learnedEnglish,French andGerman, and, being a very avid reader, got acquainted with the works ofLord Byron,François-René de Chateaubriand,Victor Hugo,George Sand,William Shakespeare,John Keats,Percy Bysshe Shelley,Manuel du Bocage,Dante Alighieri,Alfred de Musset,Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,Alphonse de Lamartine andThomas Chatterton, which would heavily influence his writing style.
While at school, Azevedo drifted towards the moderate liberalism of Lamartine andFrançois Guizot.[5][6] In his poem "Rex Lugebit" and in his "Speech delivered at the inaugural session of the Academy Society – Philosophical Essay, May 9, 1850", Azevedo condemns the despotic practices of the Brazilian government.[7]
Having graduated in 1846 from the Colégio Pedro II, he was admitted to theUniversity of São Paulo Law School in the following year, where he befriended poetsJosé Bonifácio the Younger (the grandnephew of famous BrazilianstatesmanJosé Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva),Aureliano Lessa andBernardo Guimarães. Alongside these poets and others, he founded the infamous "Sociedade Epicureia" ("Epicurean Society"), a mythical club heavily based uponEpicurean andbohemian thought, and also planned a work in conjunction with Lessa and Guimarães, the poetry bookAs Três Liras (The Three Lyres).[8] However, theAs Três Liras project never came to be; the only surviving part of it today is the bookLira dos Vinte Anos, published one year after Azevedo's death, in 1853. He also founded in 1849 the official magazine of the Sociedade Ensaio Filosófico Paulistano, whose publication ceased in 1856.
Because of his fragile health and the murky weather of São Paulo, Azevedo contractedtuberculosis. He then abandoned college and moved to his grandfather's farm in Rio, where the weather was warmer, in order to mitigate his disease's symptoms; there he fell from ahorse and fractured hisiliac fossa. After an unsuccessful surgery, he died, on April 25, 1852, being only 20 years old.[2] It is acommon misconception that he died directly from the tuberculosis.[9] He was buried one day later at theSaint John the Baptist Cemetery; his last words before his death were reported to be "Que fatalidade, meu pai!" ("What a fatality, my father!"). Coincidentally, one of the last poems Azevedo wrote prior to his death was entitled "Se Eu Morresse Amanhã" ("If I Died Tomorrow") – the poem was read at his funeral byManuel Antônio de Almeida, who also happened to be one of Azevedo's cousins.
Another one of Azevedo's cousins, Maria Catarina de Abreu Sodré, eventually married famous novelistJoaquim Manuel de Macedo, who allegedly based the character Carolina of his novelA Moreninha on her.
Azevedo also wrote many letters and essays, and translated intoPortuguese numerous poems byVictor Hugo,Lord Byron'sParisina,William Shakespeare'sOthello's fifth act andHeinrich Heine's poem "Sag' mir wer einst die Uhren erfund" (present in hisLira dos Vinte Anos under the title "Relógios e Beijos"). He also wrote a novel,O Livro de Fra. Gondicário; however, the only extant parts of it today are two fragments of its third chapter.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
| Preceded by New creation |  Brazilian Academy of Letters -Patron of the 2nd chair | Succeeded by Coelho Neto (founder) |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
Patrons and members of theBrazilian Academy of Letters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Chairs 1 to 10 | 1 (Adelino Fontoura):Luís Murat ►Afonso d'Escragnolle Taunay ►Ivan Monteiro de Barros Lins ►Bernardo Élis ►Evandro Lins e Silva ►Ana Maria Machado | |
| Chairs 11 to 20 | 11 (Fagundes Varela):Lúcio de Mendonça ►Pedro Augusto Carneiro Lessa ►Eduardo Ramos ►João Luís Alves ►Adelmar Tavares ►Deolindo Couto ►Darcy Ribeiro ►Celso Furtado ►Hélio Jaguaribe ►Ignácio de Loyola Brandão | |
| Chairs 21 to 30 | 21 (Joaquim Serra):José do Patrocínio ►Mário de Alencar ►Olegário Mariano ►Álvaro Moreira ►Adonias Filho ►Dias Gomes ►Roberto Campos ►Paulo Coelho | |
| Chairs 31 to 40 | 31 (Pedro Luís Pereira de Sousa):Luís Caetano Pereira Guimarães Júnior ►João Batista Ribeiro de Andrade Fernandes ►Paulo Setúbal ►Cassiano Ricardo ►José Cândido de Carvalho ►Geraldo França de Lima ►Moacyr Scliar ►Merval Pereira | |
