Clarice Lispector (December 10, 1920 - December 9, 1977) was a Brazilian writer. Acclaimed internationally for her innovative novels, she was also an accomplished writer of short stories and a journalist with a regular national column.
Considered one of the greatest Brazilian prose writers of the twentieth century, Clarice Lispector was born in Chechelnyk, a shtetl in Ukraine, while her family was in transit to Brazil. By the time of their arrival in Brazil, she was two months old. Her family first settled in Macei?, Alagoas, where her mother had family relations, and later moved to Recife, Pernambuco, where she went to elementary and high school, and wrote her first essays. After her mother's death, the family moved again, to Rio de Janeiro, when Clarice was already 14 years old. There, she studied law and married her classmate Maury Gurgel Valente. After he entered the diplomatic corps she moved to Europe, living in Naples, Berne, Torquay (England), and Washington. She returned to Brazil in 1959.
Lispector was fluent in Yiddish, English, French and also had various levels of ability and knowledge in other languages, particularly Italian and German. In later life, she supported herself by translating books from English and French. She never said that she spoke Yiddish at home, but always said that her native Portuguese was the language of her heart. She never wrote in any other language.
Her family was Jewish and spoke Yiddish at home. In 1944 she published her first novel Perto do Cora??o Selvagem, translated into English as "Near the Wild Heart." When the novel was published, many claimed that her stream-of-consciousness writing style was heavily influenced by Virginia Woolf or James Joyce, but she had read neither of these authors. This novel, like all of her subsequent works, was marked by an intense focus on interior emotional states.
Lispector died of cancer in 1977, just one day before her 57th birthday, and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery of Caju, in Rio de Janeiro.
Her last novel is A Hora da Estrela, translated as The Hour of The Star, where the life of Macab?a, a poor woman living in Rio de Janeiro, is described by a narrator called Rodrigo S.M., a fictional writer. Written near the end of her life, A Hora da Estrela diverged from the themes and style of most of her work, instead directly and explicitly focusing on poverty and marginality in Brazil.
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Considered one of the greatest Brazilian prose writers of the twentieth century, Clarice Lispector was born in Chechelnyk, a shtetl in Ukraine, while her family was in transit to Brazil. By the time of their arrival in Brazil, she was two months old. Her family first settled in Macei?, Alagoas, where her mother had family relations, and later moved to Recife, Pernambuco, where she went to elementary and high school, and wrote her first essays. After her mother's death, the family moved again, to Rio de Janeiro, when Clarice was already 14 years old. There, she studied law and married her classmate Maury Gurgel Valente. After he entered the diplomatic corps she moved to Europe, living in Naples, Berne, Torquay (England), and Washington. She returned to Brazil in 1959.
Lispector was fluent in Yiddish, English, French and also had various levels of ability and knowledge in other languages, particularly Italian and German. In later life, she supported herself by translating books from English and French. She never said that she spoke Yiddish at home, but always said that her native Portuguese was the language of her heart. She never wrote in any other language.
Her family was Jewish and spoke Yiddish at home. In 1944 she published her first novel Perto do Cora??o Selvagem, translated into English as "Near the Wild Heart." When the novel was published, many claimed that her stream-of-consciousness writing style was heavily influenced by Virginia Woolf or James Joyce, but she had read neither of these authors. This novel, like all of her subsequent works, was marked by an intense focus on interior emotional states.
Lispector died of cancer in 1977, just one day before her 57th birthday, and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery of Caju, in Rio de Janeiro.
Her last novel is A Hora da Estrela, translated as The Hour of The Star, where the life of Macab?a, a poor woman living in Rio de Janeiro, is described by a narrator called Rodrigo S.M., a fictional writer. Written near the end of her life, A Hora da Estrela diverged from the themes and style of most of her work, instead directly and explicitly focusing on poverty and marginality in Brazil.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Perto do Cora??o Selvagem (1944) [Eng: Near To The Wild Heart]
- O Lustre (1946) [Eng: The Chandelier]
- A Cidade Sitiada (1949) [Eng: The Besieged City]
- Alguns Contos (1952) [Eng: Some Stories]
- La?os de Fam?lia (1960) [Eng: Family Ties]
- A Ma?? no Escuro (1961) [Eng: The Apple in the Dark]
- A Legi?o Estrangeira (1964) [Eng: The Foreign Legion]
- A Paix?o segundo G.H. (1964) - [Eng: The Passion According to G.H.]
- O Mist?rio do Coelho Pensante (1967) [Eng: The Mystery of the Thinking Rabbit]*
- A mulher que matou os peixes (1968) [Eng: The woman who killed the fishes]*
- Uma Aprendizagem ou O Livro dos Prazeres (1969) [Eng: An Apprenticeship or the Book of Pleasures]
- Felicidade Clandestina (1971) [Eng: Clandestine Happiness]
- A imita??o da rosa (1973) [Eng: The imitation of the rose]
- ?gua Viva (1973) [Eng: The Stream of Life]
- A Vida ?ntima de Laura (1974) [Eng: The Intimate Life of Laura]*
- A Via-crucis do Corpo (1974) [Eng: The Stations of the Body]
- Onde estivestes de Noite (1974) [Eng: Where Were You at Night]
- A hora da Estrela (1977) [Eng: The Hour of the Star]
- Para n?o Esquecer (1978) [Eng: Not to Forget]
- Quase de Verdade (1978) [Eng: Almost True] *
- Um Sopro de Vida (1978) [Eng: A Breath of Life]
- A Bela e a Fera (1979) [Eng: Beauty and the Beast]
- A Descoberta do Mundo (1984) [Eng: The Discovery of the World]
- Como Nasceram as Estrelas (1987) [Eng: How the Stars were Born]*
- Cartas perto do Cora??o (2001) [Eng: Letters near the Heart]
- Correspond?ncias (2002) [Eng: Correspondence]
* Children's book.
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