Backlands: The Canudos Campaign (Penguin Classics) Paperback – May 25, 2010

I was in the middle of Samuel Putnam's translation of "Os Sertoes" when this new translation became available.I don't read Portuguese so I cannot evaluate either translation in terms of its fidelity to the original.I'm now rereading the book using both translations in tandem. Putnam's rendition is beautiful to read but occasionally unclear ( e.g., there are places where I have to read a sentence more than once to figure out which noun in the first part of the sentence a gerund located towards its close is meant to modify) which is where Lowe's translation comes in handy. Lowe's sentences tend to be syntactically "a straight shot", whereas Putnam's are more intricate, forcing the reader to pause between sentences , conjuring in the reader's imagination (well,in mine at least!) a narrator who takes his time relating his tale, punctuating his utterances with a sip of wine, a drag from a cigarro, or simply a moment of reflection, briefly letting the sounds of the night flood in. And it may just be, I sometimes feel, that the time it takes to process those long involved sentences in the Putnam provides the proper pace for the scenes in the book to unfold in the reader's mind. The shorter sentences in the Lowe translation occasionally result in what is probably an unintentional anaphora (since English obliges one to repeat the pronoun - He... He.. He.. or They ...They..They) creating an effect somewhat like the same melody being played faster and faster, or someone talking til he runs out of breath. One doesn't feel the urge to linger over Lowe's prose the way one does with Putnam's, but Lowe is very useful for rapid reading without losing the thread of the action. Also, and this above all else, I simply could- not- read the first sixty-odd pages of the Putnam translation, and I am glad to have the Lowe to make it accessible. I don't visualize Putnam's versions of da Cunha's descriptions of the terrain nearly as well as I do Lowe's, both in this part of the book and throughout.If Putnam "has a tendency to slightly alter, maybe even embellish" the original, as the author of the introduction to the Lowe book claims, Lowe's version sometimes reads like a paraphrase for the benefit of readers who don't want to be sent to the dictionary or encyclopedia every other page. She will omit unfamiliar allusions and unusual words (including da Cunha's own original coinages, as well as specialized terms peculiar to one of the many disciplines that he was conversant with) where retaining these would have added little or nothing to the narrative. If I were to assign this book to a group of undergraduates , I would go with the Lowe translation hands down. For someone who wants to experience "the full monty" of da Cunha's style and its occasional eccentricities, the Putnam translation may be relevant.This review should be taken as less of a plug for either Putnam or Lowe than it is for reading both translations together rather than relying exclusively on one, just as someone would read the KJV for the gorgeous prose but keep a more recent translation handy for the sake of clarity. Also there is so much going on on a single page of Os sertoes that that I often seem to notice something in one translation that I had glossed over in the other. One also occasionally runs across intriguing discrepencies - a sentence in the Putnam reads " The deposed Braganca dynasty had finally found a Monk [ as in George Monk or Monck whose military aid eased Charles II's path to the English throne and the restoration of the Stuart dynasty] in Joao Abbade" whereas the Lowe has the common noun "monk" - "The defunct Braganza royal line had found its monk in Joao Abbade". I don't have access to the original so can't tell who is right - could it be that the conventions governing capitalization in Portuguese support both readings? I wouldn't know.Finally, not including the translation and the introduction, there seems to be something curiously half-hearted on the part of Penguin Classics in putting out this book - instead of the inadequate maps in the Putnam, none whatsoever here to accompany a text that is crying out for them; also, the superficial blurb on the back with its unrepresentative quote (which for some bizarre reason is taken from Putnam's translation rather than Lowe's).

I did find one mistake though I believe - page 83. The sentence . . .followers of Manuel Nunes,Viana,who set out from his ranch, Fazenda do Escuro, the Dark Ranch, in Carinhanha, to put down the emboabas, the Portuguese who were also hunting for gold on the Rio das Mortes. Whoever these new settlers were or wherever they came from, when the reached the heart of those backlands they rarely turned back. I think it should read something like or even the Portuguese followers of Manuel Nunes Viana who set out from his ranch, the Fazenda do Escuro, the Dark Ranch, in Carinhanha to lead the emboabas. Whoever these new settlers were or wherever they came from when they reached the heart of those backlands, they rarely returned. The magazine The Americas Vol. 37, No.4 (Apr., 1981), pp479-498 published by Cambridge University Press talks about Manuel Nunes Vinana leading the emboabas. So he obviously wouldn't be putting down the emboabas. The emboabas were fighting the paulistas who were led by some other guy. Wikipedia says similar stuff - I don't have time to delve further - but this seems likely the case. Mostly the translation is good though - real helpful in some cases I think when can't find some words that don't seem to exist in any dictionary - particularly this translation is nice because it isn't so big - I have the old translation but I rarely use it because it is hardback and so big - this translation is much more useful as is comfortable size and easier to deal with - the newer translation rarely deviates from the older translation - is pretty much the same in this mistake also - the other was published by University of Chicago press. I'm just learning portuguese - only been studying it for a year this is my 2nd book I've read. So I'm hardly an expert. I did take Portuguese in college 40 years ago but only now starting to really try and read anything in Portuguese after making it through duolingo and reading the short book Casa Velha this is my second book. I'd probably have to read some really old other portuguese books to be absolutely sure about all this. I could be wrong. There's some older Brazilian portuguese history books that might shed light on the whole situation.

Backlands: The Canudos Campaign is one of the best military history books ever written. The detail in which Euclides da Cunha wrote is such that the reader can actually visualize the scenes depicted as if he were there. The first part of the book deals with the history and background of the people who inhabit the sertao region of northeast Brazil, as well as climate, vegetation and natural history of the area. Da Cunha was an officer in the Brazilian military who took part in the last month of the campaign to overtake Canudos from the religious fanatics, led by Antonio Conselheiro, which occurred from November 1896- October 1897. This book is a "must read" for anyone who is fascinated by Brazil and the Brazilian people, especially those called "backlanders."

If you want to know about Brazil, you must read this book. Just about any Brazilian you meet will have either read this book or at least know a fairly detailed history about the Canudos rebellion. The first-person racism of Brazil's great historian Euclides da Cunha was very difficult for me to take in, but it gives a great perspective of a cultural norm at the turn of the century (1900). To know Brazil, you must read this one at some point.

This is a slog but worth it. The horror of the story shook me even more than the fictionalized account by Llosa. daCunha must have been an odd mixture of science-of-the day and dep feelings. No wonder this is a revered book i Brazil. If we could only learn from it.

Elizabeth Lowe's translation of a Brazilian classic is good news for those who want an introduction to a famous part of Brazilian history, and it's especially useful for classes on Latin American literature taught in English. This edition is a pleasure to read.