Chapters (32)
- The Alienist by Machado de Assis
- Title page
- I. How Itaguai Acquired a Madhouse
- II. A Torrent of Madmen
- III. God Knows What He is Doing
- IV. A New Theory
- V. The Terror
- VI. The Rebellion
- VII. The Unexpected
- VIII. The Druggist’s Dilemma
- IX. Two Beautiful Cases
- X. The Restoration
- XI. Release and Joy
- XII. The Last Part of the Fourth Item
- XIII. Plus Ultra
- Notes
- Illuminations for The Alienist by Machado de Assis
- Title page
- Machado de Assis’ Rio de Janeiro
- The Bay of Rio by Fannie E. Coe
- The City and Its Institutionsby A.J. Lamoureux
- Photograph
- Photograph
- Reading I
- Photograph
- Art and Insanity in the 19th century
- Genius and Insanityby Dr. William Hirsch
- Reading II
- Illustration
- Illustration
- Reading III
- Photograph
AHASVERUS. Speak, speak on; tell me everything.
PROMETHEUS. The description of life is not worth the sensation of life; you shall experience it deeply. The bosom of Abraham in your old Scriptures is nothing but this final, perfect world. There you will greet David and the prophets. There will you tell to the astounded listeners, not only the great events of the extinct world, but also the ills they will never know: sickness, old age, grief, egotism, hypocrisy, abhorrent vanity, imbecility, and the rest. The soul, like the earth, will possess an incorruptible tunic.
AHASVERUS. I shall gaze ever on the immense blue sky?
PROMETHEUS. Behold how beautiful it is.
AHASVERUS. As beautiful and serene as eternal justice. Magnificent heave, more beautiful than the tents of Caesar. I shall behold you forever; you will receive my thoughts, as before; you will grant me clear days, and friendly nights . . .
PROMETHEUS. Dawn upon dawn.
AHASVERUS. Ah, speak on, speak on. Tell me everything. Let me unbind these chains . . .
PROMETHEUS. Loosen them, new Hercules, last man of the new world, who shall be the first of the new. Such is your destiny; neither you nor I,—nobody can alter it. You go farther than your Moses. From the top of mount Nebo, at the point of death, he beheld the land of Jericho, which was to belong to his descendants, and the Lord said unto him: “Thou has seen with thine eyes, yet shalt not pass beyond.” You shall pass beyond, Ahasverus; you shall dwell in Jericho.
AHASVERUS. Place your hand upon my head; look well at me; fill me with the reality of your prediction; let me breathe a little of the new, full life . . . King, did you say?
PROMETHEUS. The chosen king of a chosen people.
AHASVERUS. It is not too much in recompense for the deep ignominy in which I have dwelt. Where one life heaped mire, another life will place a halo. Speak, speak on . . . speak on . . . (He continues to dream. The two eagles draw near.)
FIRST EAGLE. Ay, ay, ay! Alas for this last man; he is dying, yet he dreams of life.
SECOND EAGLE. Not so much that he hated it as that he loved it so much.
—from Brazilian Tales, 1921
Photograph
The Funeral of Machado de Assis, photographer unknown, 1908