Aluízio Azevedo

Aluízio Azevedo (born April 14, 1857, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil—died Jan. 21, 1913, Buenos Aires, Arg.) was a novelist who set the pattern for the naturalistic novel in Brazil and whose work anticipated later novels of social protest.

Azevedo studied at the school of fine arts of Rio de Janeiro and became a journalist. His works, modeled on the naturalistic novels of Émile Zola and imbued with antislavery, anticlerical, and antibourgeois sentiments, closely document aspects of Brazilian life of his day. His first success, O Mulato (1881; “The Mulatto”), deals with racial prejudice. Two other memorable novels, Casa de Pensão (1884; “The Boarding House”) and O Cortiço (1890; A Brazilian Tenement), provide detailed and highly critical accounts of the emergent middle-class society of Rio de Janeiro. Azevedo abandoned his literary career at 37 and entered the diplomatic service, being a consul in Argentina at his death.