The female characterizations in Machado's novels are much more important to their author's narrative art and to his social vision than we have previously thought. This is the first book-length study in English to address this issue, and it will open up a new and very rich vein of Machadoan scholarship.

Contents
 
Notes on Translations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Chronology
One: Introduction
Two: Women as Characters in the Nineteenth-Century Brazilian Novel: The National Tradition Out of Which an Internationalized Machado de Assis Would Emerge
Three: The Early Novels of Machado de Assis: 1872-1878
Four: The Later Novels
Five: Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author