Mémoires posthumes de Brás Cubas : un chef-d’œuvre d’ironie et de génie littéraire où un défunt narre sa propre vie avec une liberté de ton inégalée.

Itaguaï, Brésil, XIXe siècle. Simon Bacamarte, médecin aliéniste, fonde la Maison Verte, un asile censé soigner les fous. Mais quand sa quête scientifique tourne à l'obsession, c'est toute la ville qui bascule dans l'absurde.

Brazilian Tales is a collection of six short stories selected by Isaac Goldberg as best representative of the Brazilian Literature of his period - the end of the 19th century. His comprehensive preface aims at familiarizing the reader with a literature that was - and still is - virtually unknown outside the boundaries of its own land, and the pieces chosen by Goldberg to be translated belong to writers that reached popularity and appreciation while still alive. This "pioneer volume", as the translator himself puts it, still keeps its charm and interest as a way of offering to the English speaking public some "sample cases" of Brazilian Literature.