Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma

Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma (in English: The Tragic Fate of Policarpo Quaresma) is a novel by Pre-Modernist Brazilian writer Lima Barreto. The work was published under feuilleton form in 1911, from August to October in the Jornal do Commercio. The focus of the work is the nationalism in the early years of the First Brazilian Republic and criticism to the middle-class and the bureaucratic government. The work is comical in the beginning, transiting to harsh criticisms by the end. These critics demystify the figure of the president Floriano Peixoto (1891–1894), known as the Marechal de Ferro ("The Iron Marshal"), and also of the Brazilian military.

The book is centered on Policarpo Quaresma, an ultra-nationalist bureaucrat of the Army. Quaresma is an enthusiast of Brazilian popular and indigenous culture, and has an innocent love for his country. Throughout the story, his heightened patriotism leads him always to disastrous situations: in the first part, he ends in an asylum; in the second, his agricultural enterprise fails due to the Brazilian pests and soil; and in the third and final part, he is arrested and executed under the orders of Floriano Peixoto, whom he admired.

The whole first part takes place in Rio de Janeiro. Quaresma is shown as a wise, but naïve nationalist who spent years of his life in private studies on Brazil. After 30 years, he finally found the right time to put in action his plan for improvement of Brazilian government and society.

Quaresma is fluent in German, French and English; however, he only reads works of Brazilian authors or foreign authors whose works were about Brazil. His favorite authors were those who were considered the most patriotic: José de Alencar and Gonçalves Dias.

He is seen as eccentric by his neighbors. Lima Barreto shows Quaresma's neighbors as pedant and mediocre people, a criticism of the urban society of late 19th century. For example, the shallow relationships between the daughter of General Albernaz, Ismênia, and her fiancé. She appears to be an disinterested girl who thinks that the only purpose in life for a woman is to find a husband; her fiancé is a man who is lauded just because he finished college. General Albernaz, who is a neighbor of Quaresma, is a miserable man: in spite of his high title, he never fought a single battle. He lies about military deeds, and in fact, he only achieved generalship because of his many years in service. Other characters are seen as purely mediocre: none of them has real value and are bureaucrats.

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