Eduardo Prado, author of A ilusão americana

Abstract

As a privileged writer, the nineteenth-century Brazilian writer Eduardo Prado will have his expressional profile illuminated retrospectively here, by the appreciation of two other recognized authors, taking in consideration José Lins do Rego’s interpretation, with his article collected in the book A casa e o homem, or even Eça de Queiroz, with his criticism published in the Revista moderna (1898) and later incorporated into Eduardo Prado posthumous works under the title Coletâneas. As the primary source for interpretation, we will take the second edition of his essay A ilusão americana (1895), in order to  demonstrate how he, the essayist from São Paulo, is inscribed in the Portuguese-Brazilian tradition through an unusual style. To create an association between the essayist cultural life and historical future, this work will be designed as being intertwined in the criticism of his Portuguese friend,  so that can be understood as determinants of his style. Thus, at least we may have the right notion of how one of the most effective voices in the projection of Brazilian literature in Europe ended up confining itself to a kind of remote reference, otherwise dispensable to the understanding of the national literary legacy that is offered as a model of prose and style in terms of writing that is of a precise time and space.