Trio in A-Minor: Five Stories by Machado de Assis

Brazilian writer Machado de Assis is considered one of the greatest contributors to world literature. His work not only pushes the bounds of fiction but spans a crucial period in Brazilian history. In his early years, he set his stories in the New World version of Portugal’s rigid traditional social structure. His characters worked out their frivolous romantic concerns with excruciatingly convoluted formality.

But a few years later, as Brazil inched toward a republican government and the abo...