Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839 – 1908) was a writer considered by many critics, scholars, writers, and readers to be the greatest name in Brazilian literature. Machado de Assis left behind a very extensive body of work, the fruit of half a century of literary labor, including plays, poetry, prefaces, critiques, speeches, more than two hundred short stories, and several novels. "Dom Casmurro" is one of the most well-known, translated, and studied works of Machado de Assis, and it certainly attests to the technical prowess of its author and his ability to handle a plot that could be considered tragic with unparalleled irony and detachment.
The work, if read only as a bare plot, could be just one of the many "adultery novels" that populate 19th-century literature. However, once transformed into a novel by Machado de Assis, it becomes an exercise in narrative technique that challenges and provokes the reader. In this novel, the reader can witness the talent of this exceptional writer, one of the greatest of all time.