A Brazilian Classic Loved by Elizabeth Bishop

Posted by Donna Coonan in Author News, Blog, Recommended Reading

In the Guardian last Saturday, William Boyd wrote an article on Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil. It's a peculiar piece, perhaps because he constrained himself to beginning each paragraph with consecutive letters of the alphabet. However, it reminded me of The Diary of 'Helena Morley', a classic Brazilian book which Bishop translated into English. I read The Diary of 'Helena Morley' years before I started working at Virago and was captivated by it, so I was really over the moon to be able to publish it on the VMC list. It's the charming, evocative diary of a cheeky, clever girl living in Brazil over a hundred years ago. She's wonderful, and so full of life. The characters and events are brilliantly drawn, and it's such a delight to read. This is what Elizabeth Bishop said of the book:

'When I first came to Brazil, in 1952, I asked my Brazilian friends which Brazilian books I should begin reading …They frequently recommended this little book, "Minha Vida de Menina" …In English the title means "My Life as a Little Girl" or "Young Girl", and that is exactly what the book is about, but it is not reminiscences; it is a diary, the diary actually kept by a little girl between the ages of 12 and 15, in the far-off town of Diamantina, in 1893-1895 …The more I read the book the better I liked it. The scenes and events it described were odd, remote, and long ago, and yet fresh, sad, funny and eternally true. The longer I stayed on in Brazil the more Brazilian the book seemed, yet much of it could have happened in any small provincial town or village, and at almost any period of history – at least before the arrival of the automobile and the moving-picture theatre'

Our edition has a lovely introduction by Diana Athill, who says:

'No wonder Bishop fell in love with this book . . . No adult writer, however skilful . . . Could write with the nonchalant vivacity and ease that she unwittingly commanded.'

Read an extract of the book. Whether or not you've ever been to Brazil (sadly I haven't), it's a book to fall in love with.