This book offers an alternative explanation for one of the core dilemmas of Brazilian literary criticism: the "midlife crisis" Machado de Assis underwent from 1878 to 1880, the result of which was the writing of The Posthumous Memoirs of Br s Cubas, as well as the remarkable production of his mature years--with an emphasis on his masterpiece, Dom Casmurro. At the center of this alternative explanation, Castro Rocha situates the...