Prose fiction is without a doubt the “sleeper” of the literary genres in Brazil during the first half of the nineteenth century. In fact, it may be said that, with the exception of Teresa Margarida da Silva e Orta’s Máximas de virtude e forrnosura, ou Aventuras de Diófanes (published in the second half of the eighteenth century), Brazilian fiction was born, and experienced a rather sickly infancy, during the period 1830–1855. It remains for the second half of the nineteenth century to raise this “late bloomer” among the literary genres in Brazil to its place of glory with the works of José de Alencar and Machado de Assis. Among the reasons typically given (Salles, Primeiras manifestações da ficção na Bahia, 8) for the lethargy in the development of Brazilian fiction are the preference among writers and the public for the prestigious poetic genre, the lingering of the neoclassical influence, the popularity of ecclesiastical and oratorical rhetoric, the immediate appeal of combative prose, and a simple lack of editors disposed to experiment with publication of an unproven genre. The public attention to events surrounding Brazil’s Independence from Portugal and the pressure of immediate political and social concerns left little time for speculative writing (Paranhos, História do romantismo no Brasil, 36), though paradoxically the city of Rio de Janeiro had become a cultural center through the presence there of the Portuguese royal court, gaining a press in 1808 and publishing its first newspapers in 1813.