Álvares de Azevedo

Álvares de Azevedo

A picture of Azevedo taken during the late 1840s
Born Manuel Antônio Álvares de Azevedo
12 September 1831
São Paulo, Brazil
Died 25 April 1852 (aged 20)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Resting place
 São João Batista Cemetery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Nationality Brazilian
Other names Job Stern, Maneco
Alma mater Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo
Occupation Poet, playwright, short story writer, essayist, Law student
Notable work Lira dos Vinte Anos, Noite na Taverna, Macário
Parent(s) Inácio Manuel Álvares de Azevedo
Maria Luísa Mota Azevedo

Manuel Antônio Álvares de Azevedo (September 12, 1831 – April 25, 1852), affectionately called "Maneco" by his close friends, relatives and admirers, was a Brazilian Romantic poet, short story writer, playwright and essayist, considered to be one of the major exponents of Ultra-Romanticism and Gothic literature in Brazil. His works, heavily influenced by Musset, Chateaubriand, Goethe and above all Byron, were all published posthumously due to his premature death with only 20 years old, and acquired a strong cult following as years went by, particularly among youths of the goth subculture.

He is the patron of the second chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, and of the ninth chair of the Paulista Academy of Letters.

Biography

Azevedo was born into a wealthy family in São Paulo, on September 12, 1831. Son of Law student Inácio Manuel Álvares de Azevedo and Maria Luísa Azevedo (née Mota), a popular legend says that he was born in the library of the Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo, but he was actually born on the house of his maternal grandfather, Severo Mota. He also had a younger brother, Inácio Manuel, Jr., but he died prematurely in 1835. The death proved to be an early source of shock for the young Álvares.

In 1833, Álvares moved with his family to Rio de Janeiro, and in 1840 he enrolled at the Colégio Stoll, in the bairro of Botafogo, being an excellent student.[1] In 1844, he temporarily returned to São Paulo with his uncle, going back to Rio in the following year, where he enrolled at the Colégio Pedro II.

Having graduated in 1846 from the Colégio Pedro II, he was admitted to the Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo in the following year, where he befriended the poets José Bonifácio the Younger (the grandnephew of famous Brazilian statesman José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva), Aureliano Lessa and Bernardo Guimarães. Alongside these poets, he founded the mythical "Sociedade Epicureia" ("Epicurean Society"), a club heavily based upon Epicurean and bohemian ideals, and also planned a work in conjunction with Lessa and Guimarães, the poetry book As Três Liras (in English: The Three Lyres).[2] However, the As Três Liras project did not come to fruition; the only surviving part of it today is the book Lira dos Vinte Anos, published one year after Azevedo's death, in 1853. He also founded in 1849 the official magazine of the Sociedade Ensaio Filosófico Paulistano, which lasted until 1856.

Because of his fragile health and the murky weather of São Paulo, Azevedo contracted tuberculosis. He then had to abandon his Law course, and moved to his grandfather's farm in Rio, where the weather was warmer, in order to mitigate his disease's symptoms; there he fell from a horse and fractured his iliac fossa, what resulted in his death at 20 on April 25, 1852.[3] He was buried one day later at the Cemitério São João Batista. His last words before his death were reported to be "Que fatalidade, meu pai!" ("What a fatality, my father!").

Works

Azevedo also wrote many letters and essays, and translated into Portuguese Lord Byron's "Parisina" and William Shakespeare's Othello‍ '​s fifth act. He also wrote a novel, O Livro de Fra. Gondicário; however, the only extant parts of it today are two fragments of its third chapter.

See also

References

  1. ↑ UOL Educação. "Álvares de Azevedo". Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  2. ↑ "Álvares de Azevedo – O poeta ultrarromântico". Mundo Educação. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  3. ↑ Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural. "Azevedo, Álvares de (1831–1852)". Retrieved 27 March 2012.

Further reading

External links

Portuguese Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Preceded by
New creation
Brazilian Academy of Letters - Patron of the 2nd chair 		Succeeded by
Coelho Neto (founder)