Os Sertões (translated as Rebellion in the Backlands) (1902) is a book written by the Brazilian author Euclides da Cunha, widely considered one of the greatest achievements of Brazilian and even World literature. Mixing science and literature, the author narrates the story of a war that happened in the end of the 19th century, in Canudos, a settlement of Bahia's Sertão ("backland"), an extremely arid region where, even now, struggles against poverty, drought and political corruption continue. During the war (1893–1897) against the republican army, the sertanejos (inhabitants of the backlands) were commanded by a messianic leader called Antonio Conselheiro.

Influenced by theories like the Positivism and Social Darwinism from the end of the 19th century, Cunha discussed the forming of a new Brazilian Republican nation and also its racial composition and its promising future of progress and civilization.

The book is originally divided into three parts:

1. “A Terra” (the land): portrays the northeastern backland and the war scenario.

2. “O Homem” (the man): exposes the land’s inhabitants and their race composition, explaining the individual by its phenotype and emphasizing the opposition between the coast and the backlands men.

3. “A Luta” (the fight): narrates the conflict between the Republican army and the sertanejos who, despite been considered “racially degenerate”, succeed in winning many battles, even though they lost the war.

Throughout the book, Euclides seems to have sympathy for the oppressed sertanejos and to doubt the progress and modernity of Republican ideals. Actually, Os Sertões is still considered one of the most important works from this historical period, an effort to represent the Nation as a totality. Despite its outdated scientific and historical ideas, Cunha's book is still valid because of its literary language and as a representation of the ideals of the intelligentsia at the end of the 19th century in Brazil.

In 1981, a version of the story was rewritten by Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa as The War of the End of the World. Vargas Llosa also dedicates his novel to Cunha.

References[link]

• Cunha, Euclides da. Rebellion in the Backlands. Translated from Portuguese Os Sertões. University Of Chicago Press, 1957. ISBN 0-226-12444-4.
• AMORY, FREDERIC. Historical Source and Biographical Context in the Interpretation of Euclides da Cunha's Os Sertões. Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol.28. No.3, Brazil: History and Society. (Oct., 1996), pp. 667–685.
• CURY, Maria Z. F. Os Sertões, de Euclides da Cunha: Espaços. Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol.41, No.1. (2004), pp. 71–79.
• FERNANDES, Raúl. C. G. Euclides e a literatura: Comentários sobre a “moldura” de Os Sertões. Luso-Brazilian Review. Vol. 43, No. 2. (2006), pp. 45–62.
• Leopoldo M. Bernucci, A imitação dos sentidos: prógonos, contemporâneos e epígonos de Euclides da Cunha. São Paulo: EDUSP, 1995.
• Leopoldo M. Bernucci, Os sertões, Euclides da Cunha. Annotated edition. São Paulo: Ateliê Arquivo do Estado/Imprensa Oficial, 2001.

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Euclides da Cunha, ca. 1900

Euclides (archaic spelling Euclydes) da Cunha (January 20, 1866 – August 15, 1909) was a Brazilian journalist, sociologist and engineer. His most important work is Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands), a non-fictional account of the military expeditions promoted by the Brazilian government against the rebellious village of Canudos, known as the War of Canudos. This book was a favorite of Robert Lowell, who put it above Tolstoy, the Russian writer. Jorge Luis Borges also commented on it in his short story "Three Versions of Judas". The book was translated into English by Samuel Putnam and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1944. It remains in print.

Euclides da Cunha was also heavily influenced by Naturalism and its Darwinian proponents. Os Sertões characterised the coast of Brazil as a chain of civilisations while the interior was more primitively influenced.

Euclides da Cunha was the basis for the character of The Journalist in Mario Vargas Llosa's The War of the End of the World.

Euclides da Cunha occupied the 7th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1903 until his death in 1909.

Timeline[link]

• January 20, 1866, Euclides da Cunha was born in Cantagalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he lived until he was three years old.
• 1886 – Attended Escola Militar da Praia Vermelha, a military school in Rio.
• 1888 – Expelled from the military school, due to his participation in an act of protest during a visit of the Brazilian War Minister, Tomás Coelho, who was a member of the last Conservative cabinet of the Brazilian Empire.
• 1889 – Admitted again to the Escola Militar.
• 1891 – Admitted to the Brazilian War School (Escola de Guerra).
• 1896 – Discharged from the Army in order to dedicate himself to studying civil engineering.
• 1897 – Accompanied the Army in the Campanha de Canudos, against a rebellious group of peasants under the leadership of Antonio Conselheiro. Between 7 August and 1 October, he was in the Sertão ("backland"), as war correspondent for the O Estado de São Paulo newspaper.
• 1903 – Elected to the Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazilian Academy of Letters).
• 1903 – Established the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico, the Historical and Geographic Institute
• 1909 – Admitted as chairman and professor of Logic at the Colégio Pedro II, a public secondary school in Rio.
• August 15, 1909 – Tries to kill a young Army lieutenant, who was the lover of his wife, but he shoots back in self defense and thus Euclides da Cunha is killed.

Works[link]

• 1902 Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands: University of Chicago Press ISBN 978-0-226-12444-5) -- also Penguin Classics in a new translation, ISBN 978-0-14-310607-4
• 1907 Contrastes e confrontos, lit. Contrasts and Confrontations
• 1907 Peru versus Bolívia
• 1939 Canudos, diário de uma expedição – news articles published in the periodical O Estado de São Paulo
• 1967 Canudos e inéditos – news articles published by the periodical O Estado de São Paulo

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Euclides da Cunha

External links[link]

• Euclides da Cunha site, Biography and works (in Portuguese)
• Casa Euclidiana, São José do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, Brazil (in Portuguese)
• Short biography in English (down the article)

Preceded by Valentim Magalhães (founder)

Brazilian Academy of Letters - Occupant of the 7th chair 1903 — 1909

Succeeded by Afrânio Peixoto