For the last week, I have been immersed in this unexpectedly great history. For some strange reason, I have confused this book with Guimaraes's The Devil to Pay in the Backlands; and I have always assumed that the Brazilian film O Cangaceiro by Lima Barreto was based on Rebellion in the Backlands. I was wrong on both counts, but it doesn't matter. That's because, in the end, I regard da Cunha's book on the level of Herodotus, Thucydides and Gibbon as one of the greatest of all works of history.Picture to yourself an isolated and desolate part of Northeastern Brazil which was populated by the followers of a heretical religious leader called Antonio Conselheiro, or "Anthony the Counselor." His followers were mostly mestizo jagunços, backwoodsmen who were uniquely acquainted with this arid region of broken down mountain ranges. They built a capital of some 5,200 dwellings at a place called Canudos.Based on misconceptions of what Antonio's followers were up to, the newly formed Republic of Brazil send three military expeditions, all of whom were shot to pieces by hidden sharpshooters. Rarely did the Brazilian soldiers ever see their enemy, but they felt their bullets. From these failed expeditions, the jagunços were able to replace their blunderbusses with the latest in military technology, along with several hundred thousand rounds of unused ammunition.Into this strange situation marched a fourth expedition in April 1897. This expedition was likewise being mowed down until the Brazilians were lucky enough in mid-course to choose Carlos Machado de Bittencourt as the commander. Bittencourt did what none of the other generals did: He set up strong bases of supply and got men, supplies, and food and water to the besieged expedition, who were within sight of Canudos but unable to proceed further.What makes this a unique book is that Euclides da Cunha was not only present at the scene, but he was sympathetic to the enemy:What did it matter that they [the Brazilians:] had six thousand rifles and six thousand sabers; of what avail were the blows from twelve thousand arms, the tread of twelve thousand military boots, their six thousand revolvers and twenty cannon, their thousands upon thousands of grenades and shrapnel shells; of what avail were the executions and the conflagrations, the hunger and the thirst which they had inflicted upon the enemy; what had they achieved by ten months of fighting and one hundred days of incessant cannonading; of what profit to them these heaps of ruins, that picture no pen could portray of the demolished churches, or, finally, that clutter of broken images, fallen altars, shattered saints -- and all this beneath a bright and tranquil sky which seemingly was quite unconcerned with it all, as they pursued their flaming ideal of absolutely extinguishing a form of religious belief that was deeply rooted and which brought consolation to their fellow-beings?This is a book that should be beside the cot of every NATO general officer in Afghanistan. There is an ironic postscript. Years after the massacre in Canudos -- for there was no general surrender: the jagunços fought to the last man. Various sermons of Antonio Conselheiro were found and it has been determined that he was a legitimate religious leader and that both the Catholic Church and the Brazilian government attacked without legitimate cause.
O livro começa muito difícil!! A primeira parte dedicada a "A Terra" é por demais complicada quando se depara com o vocabulário barroco de Euclides na descrição geológica do sertão baiano. Embora repleto de notas explicativas do editor, a leitura acontece em um ritmo desanimador, se o propósito é recriar as imagens a partir da descrição do autor. Inevitavelmente se questiona a classificação de "clássico" da obra, se a avaliarmos especificamente até este ponto.Entretanto, a partir da segunda parte, O Homem, o vocabulário rebuscado deixa de se apresentar como barreira e torna-se tempero das visões que Euclides da Cunha nos apresenta. O que é reforçado ainda mais na terceira parte, A Luta. Ao final, somos obrigados a admitir que sim o livro é um clássico Brasileiro, além de um documento histórico de grande importância.
Do You like book Rebellion In The Backlands (1957)?
Um clássico sensacional do domínio descritivo e do uso da nossa língua. Um retrato amplo de um Brasil "primitivo" e sertanejo. Uma observação histórica, geográfica, política, antropológica e mágica de um pedaço e de uma época do nosso país. Uma gênese contextualizada. Um puta documento. Apesar de realmente ser mais difícil no início pelo excesso de detalhes geográficos, as considerações históricas sobre os homens e a guerra valem por tudo, mesmo que com uma ética evolucionista e ocidental um pouco acentuada demais para as quebradas do Sertão.
—Daniel Gouvea
Circa 1890, a religious community arose in the unbelievably harsh section of Brazil they call the Northeast; more accurately, in the easternmost area where the shoreline juts into the Atlantic. The author, an army engineer, details the "...War and Peace of Brazil...". Tellingly, this book has never been out of print after 125 years. It is a massive book, and except for the overlong description of the horrible terrain(suffice to say fierce heat, equatorial sun, desperate drought)it never drags. The cult of 5500 souls, in a village where the widest street was 8 feet across, of 3500 buildings, was apparently attracting the wrath of the government. In the first sortie, ill-organized, unprepared troops were soundly beaten by the sect. The survivors retreated, down a road lined with dead soldiers, officers and horses, that were propped up, as ghastly reminders of ignominy. The glare of sunlight on the highly reflective soil and rocks, and the lack of water, caused immense suffering. In the most unbelievable stupidity, the soldiers lost over a million rounds of ammo to the defenders. Two more defeats; and they finally mounted an operation that succeeded to wipe the cult out. The foes fought their battles on the narrow streets and and sometimes spent weeks inside the same building, unable to advance, driven mad by hunger, and thirst and fear. Let us hope we never have to fight Brazil. Truly remarkable book that deserves more attention.
—David C.
This was Robert Lowell's favorite book. It is a dense account of the land and people and events that took place in the northeastern corner of Brazil in 1890 or so. A subculture of rubber farmers developed their own religion-based society around a charismatic crazyman name "Anthony the Counselor"and confronted the authorities of the new Brazilian republic (they had just deposed their emperor and were suspicious of governments that formed around a single leader). Like Mark Twain in "Life on the Mississippi" Da Cunha brings the landscape into play as an acitve character. The military accounts reminded this reader of a more flamboyant version of Grant's Memoirs. This masterpiece deserves a new translation. Where are you, Edith Grossman? The current one is by Walter Prescott , who did the dreary version of Don Quixote we all had to read in college .
—Richard Freeman
