Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (13 May 1881 – 1 November 1922) was a Brazilian novelist and journalist. A major figure in Brazilian Pre-Modernism, he is famous for the novel Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, a bitter satire of the early years of the First Brazilian Republic.
Life
Lima Barreto was born on 13 May 1881 in the bairro of Laranjeiras in Rio de Janeiro. He was born on a Friday the 13th, considered superstitiously to be an unlucky day, but which he personally considered to bring good luck. His date of birth would also be marked seven years later by the signing of the Golden Law, which abolished slavery in Brazil. His father, João Henriques de Lima Barreto, was a typographer and a monarchist who had close connections to Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo, the Viscount of Ouro Preto, who would later become Lima Barreto's godfather. Barreto's mother, Amália Augusta, died when he was very young, and he was subsequently sent to study at a private school run by Teresa Pimentel do Amaral. Soon after, he entered at the Liceu Popular Niteroiense, after the Viscount of Ouro Preto decided to pay for his studies. He graduated in 1894, and in the following year, he would enter the famous Colégio Pedro II. Soon after he graduated, he entered the Escola Politécnica do Rio de Janeiro, but was forced to abandon it in 1904 in order to take care of his brothers, since his father's mental health was starting to deteriorate.
Barreto wrote for newspapers beginning in 1902, but he achieved fame in 1905, writing a series of articles for the Correio da Manhã regarding the demolition of Castle Hill. In 1911 he founded, together with some friends, the periodical Floreal. Although it only lasted for two issues, it received a warm reception from critics. In 1909 he published his first novel, Recordações do Escrivão Isaías Caminha, a scathing and semi-autobiographical satire of the Brazilian society.
During the last years of his life, Barreto was attacked by heavy bouts of depression, which led him to alcoholism and many visits to different psychiatric hospitals and sanatoriums. He died of a heart attack in 1922. His favoured target of criticism was the perceived mediocrity of the Brazilian people, mainly the government and the commercial/military authorities. One of his works that best represents this style is Os Bruzundangas, a collection of tales he published in newspapers during a period of 20 years.
Short-story collections
- Histórias e Sonhos (1920)
- Outras Histórias (1952, posthumous)
- Contos Argelinos (1952, posthumous)
Crônica
- Os Bruzundangas (1923, posthumous)