Raymundo Faoro leitor de Machado de Assis

Abstract

RAYMUNDO Faoro's work, Machado de Assis: the Pyramid and the Trapeze, studied the relationship between the narrator's situations and characters and the mindset of the social classes and status groups in Imperial Brazil. The framework of his interpretation of Machado de Assis resembles the structure of his own masterpiece, Os Donos do Poder, which was strongly influenced by Max Weber's thought. According to Faoro, we find in the work of Assis both guilds (the trapeze) and classes (the pyramid). In addition, the novelist distances himself in values and from the bourgeoisification of the elites in the Second Empire. This article also points to a universalizing dimension of classical "moralism", which Faoro identifies as one of the pivots of Assis' fictional perspective.