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Full catalogue / The Alienist / Japanese – English
The Alienist

Machado de Assis

The Alienist

Original publication
1882
Pages
110
Difficulty
★★☆
Genres
Humor, Philosophy, Psychology
Translated from
Português

About this book

Doctor Simão Bacamarte returns to the small town of Itaguaí to found an asylum, the Green House, and study madness scientifically. His criteria widen week by week: a leading citizen first, then a whole neighbourhood, then the most level-headed townspeople pass through the gates. The town grows uneasy, then rebels, while the scientist pursues his demonstration. The tale explores the boundaries of reason and the power held by whoever draws them. Machado de Assis turns it into a cool satire in which irony serves as diagnosis.

The benefits of the bilingual method with Line-by-line synced layout

Every line of the original has its translation directly beneath it, at the same height. You never lose your place: your eye drops one line and lands on exactly the sentence it just read. This is the layout that lets you open a book in a language you barely know without ever giving up, and compare the two texts almost word for word.

The excerpt shows the method using another book from the catalogue, not this one.

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