<p>Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839 ? 1908) was a writer considered by many critics, scholars, writers, and readers to be the greatest name in Brazilian literature. Machado de Assis left behind a very extensive body of work, the fruit of half a century of literary labor, including plays, poetry, prefaces, critiques, speeches, more than two hundred short stories, and several novels. "Dom Casmurro" is one of the most well-known, translated, and...