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Structure and Verisimilitude in the Novels of Érico Veríssimo
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
The following words describe Vasco Bruno's mental state, not merely while in the military hospital, but throughout his life as one of Érico Veríssimo's most important heroes. More interesting, they summarize Veríssimo's creative activities through the seven novels preceding O Tempo e o Vento:
Nestas longas horas de hospital tomo e retomo as minhas lembranjas e bem como um menino que brinca com esses cubos de madeira em cujas faces estao colocados fragmentos simetricos dum quadro, procure formar com minhas experiencias um painel que tenha sentido revelador. Viro e reviro os blocos coloridos; ten to as mais diversas combinajoes, fico alvorojado, pensando que cheguei a algum resultado claro, para no fim verificar que tudo nao passa duma caleidoscopica confusao sem pe nem cabefa. Desisto do jogo. Mas fico com a secreta esperanja de que com os elementos de que disponho, um dia ainda hei de resolver o problema. (Saga, p. 120)
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1965
References
1 Following is a list of the editions of Veríssimo's novels (titles are given in chronological order) used in this study; all references are to these editions: Clarissa (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1943); Música ao Longe (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1940); Caminhos Cruzados (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1940); Um Lugar ao Sol (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1963); Olhai os Lírios do Campo (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1938); Saga (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1940); O Resto É Silêncio (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1943); O Tempo e o Vento: O Continente (Lisbon: Livros do Brasil, n.d.), O Retrato (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1957), and O Arquipélago (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1962).
2 Olívio Montenegro, O Romance Brasileiro (Rio: José Olympio, 1938), pp. 171–173, points out several of Veríssimo's defects, especially noticeable in some of the early novels, but persistent. L. L. Barrett, “Érico Veríssimo and the Creation of Novelistic Character,” Hisp., xxix (1946), 321–338, and “Érico Veríssimo's Idea of the Novel: Theory and Practice,” Hisp., xxiv (1951), 30–40, are good initial attempts to trace the novelist's evolution. For emphasis on practice, see Moysés Vellinho, Letras da Provincia (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1960), pp. 81–101, 187–198. On a smaller scale, Merlin H. Forster's “Structure and Meaning in Érico Veríssimo's Noite,” Hisp., xlv (Dec. 1962), 712–716, analyzes that novela in much the same way that this study deals with the romances.
3 As Mãos de Meu Filho (Pôrto Alegre: Meridiano, 1942), esp. “Confissões de um romancista,” pp. 119–143, “Palavras a um leitor,” pp. 161–169, “Reflexões sôbre o romance-rio,” pp. 171–178.
4 Clarissa and Música ao Longe will be discussed below.
5 Veríssimo's tolerance even toward those types that he satirizes most is one of his greatest virtues as a human being.
6 Less obviously than some other characters, Noel, for whom Veríssimo has less sympathy in later novels, seems to reflect the author's own youthful literary experiences (see “Confissões de um romancista”).
7 As Mãos, “Hollywood e a literatura,” pp. 103–112. No doubt Veríssimo thought Hollywood could further aid literature by lending its techniques to the actual composition of a novel.
8 This repetition and consequent familiarity compensate in large measure for Veríssimo's lack of psychological depth so often mentioned in even the most favorable criticism. See Vellinho, pp. 94–97; also Antônio Cândido, Brigada Ligeira (São Paulo: Livraria Martins, 1945), pp. 78–79.
9 That this first series was not wholly intentional on Veríssimo's part is suggested in the following: “hoje … o romancista se vê compelido a deixar de ser apenas o escritor que conta urna história, para ser também o homem enciclopédico que está ao par dos problemas e dos conhecimentos de sua época em quase todos os domínios. … Solicitado por todos os múltiplos aspetos da vida moderna: procurando um rumo por entre êsse tremendo emaranhado de problemas, teorias, confiitos, paixões—o escritor acaba escrevendo um romance-rio” (“Reflexões sôbre o romance-rio,” pp. 176–177).
10 Preface to Música ao Longe (Pôrto Alegre: Globo, 1960).
11 Barrett, first art. cit., p. 338, and second art. cit., p. 33, states that Caminhos Cruzados was written after Música ao Longe, although the author's preface to the latter does not indicate this.
12 Vellinho, pp. 88–89.
13 In his preface to the 1963 edition the novelist is sometimes too harsh in judging this work.
14 The following acknowledgments preface Saga: “Ao excombatente da Brigada Internacional que me deu o roteiro de Vasco na jornada da Espanha, além de muitas outras sugestões valiosas; e ao sr. Jesús Corona, a quem devo um punhado de notas sôbre o campo-de-concentração de Argeléssur-mer—a minha homenagem e os meus agradecimentos.”
15 Some also appear in the present-time story. There is one extraordinary case as well: Fandango, whose “prose poem” follows “A Guerra,” a flashback in which he figures prominently; but he appears in later episodes too.
16 Thus there is a lapse of fifteen years in the present tense (1895–1910). This is an interesting period in the lives of Licurgo, Alice, Maria Valéria, and Ismália Caré, which this reader would have preferred in lieu of the endless general diaries, letters, and dialogues in O Tempo e o Vento; but the lacuna is filled in the body of O Retrato only by Rodrigo's sketchy reminiscences of his and Toríbio's adolescence.
17 These are in the first person, which is unique in O Tempo thus far, and they have their counterpart in Rodrigo's few deliriums in “Reunião” portions (whereas Floriano's inner self is expressed in the third person elsewhere).
18 Barrett, second art. cit., pp. 37–40, makes much of the “symphonic” development of O Continente. This is a good point, especially in view of the more explicit examples in Saga and O Resto.
19 See Veríssimo, “O Escritor Brasileiro em Nossos Dias,” Luso-Brazilian Review, i (Summer 1964), 86.