Abstract
The satirical essay De l’amour des femmes pour les sots [The Love of Women for Fools] caused controversy wherever it circulated. Originally written in French by Victor Hénaux, the author´s controversial ideas were discussed and argued about in the Belgian press in the late 1850s. In 1861 it was translated into Portuguese by the young Machado de Assis and published in Rio de Janeiro first in a newspaper, then as a book, where it stirred up the old debate about what is originality and imitation in literature. Some critics regarded it as an original text by the great Brazilian writer, while others viewed it as an adaptation or translation. This bilingual edition, carefully prepared by Ana Claudia da Silva Suriani and Eliane Fernanda Cunha Ferreira, finally solves the question of the authorship of Queda que as mulheres têm para os tolos [The Way Women Fall for Fools]. At the same time it paves the way for new controversy and research. Old stories still capture our imagination and literary writers translate, or transform myths and texts for various reasons. For a writer and translator like the young Machado de Assis, translation is a peculiar form of aesthetic meditation. It is from this material that many literary works arise. For over a hundred years, Queda que as mulheres têm para os tolos was considered to be an original text by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. This edition proves that Queda is the translation of a particular edition of Victor Henaux’s De l’amour des femmes pour les sots. It is the first scholarly edition of Machado de Assis’ translation and the only contemporary edition of Victor Henaux’s essay.