''Pen, Sword, Camisole'' (

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: ''Farda Fardão Camisola de Dormir'') is a Brazilian

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

. It was written by

Jorge Amado Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in ...

in 1979. It was published in English in 1985, with a translation by Helen R. Lane.

Background

''Pen, Sword, Camisole'' belongs to the second phase of Amado's writing life when he had largely abandoned the realism and social themes of his earlier works and turned towards an emphasis on female characters such as Dona Flor, Tereza Batista, and

Tieta ''Tieta'' (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Tieta do Agreste'', lit. "''Tieta from Agreste''") is a novel written by the Brazilian author Jorge Amado, published on August 17, 1977. Set in the 1970s, it narrates the return of Tieta to the remo ...

. Like other Amado novels, ''Pen, Sword, Camisole'' combines comic farce and biting satire. Unlike most of the other novels, it is set mainly in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

rather than in

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

and is a satire of academic and social pretension as well as of Brazil's " New State" (as it was called during the late 1930s and 1940s) under the

fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...

regime of

Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...

. The story concerns the attempts of the Chief of National Security of the regime to be elected as a member of the

Brazilian Academy of Letters The Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL) ( English: ''Brazilian Academy of Letters'') is a Brazilian literature, literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century. The first president, Machado de Assis, declared its found ...

. Amado was himself elected to the academy in 1961. The relationship between politics and art is at the center of the novel. Amado subtitled it ''A Fable to Kindle a Hope''. It is more obviously didactic than his popular novels but “bespeaks a passionate humanism”.

Plot

The novel is set in Brazil in late 1940 and early 1941 at a time when Brazil had close connections to

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

Germany. The Chief of National Security, nicknamed the Brazilian

Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...

, has the ambition to be chosen as one of the 40 member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. The death of a great Brazilian poet creates a vacancy and the Colonel begins his campaign to be elected. Some of the members can't stand the thought of the peace-loving poet being replaced by a Nazi and form a committee to oppose him. They identify a higher-ranking army officer who is a third-rate author and persuade him to run for the vacant position. Tactics used to encourage the academy members to support their candidate include intrigue and deception as well as enlisting the help of the dead poet's former mistresses to help "persuade" some of the Academicians to vote against the Nazi (hence the reference in the title to the “camisole”). However, the plans go awry when their alternative candidate turns into an obnoxious despot even before he is elected.

Criticism

Although reviews have generally agreed that ''Pen, Sword, Camisole'' is an enjoyable read, it has been criticised for being rather insubstantial in comparison with some other Amado novels. One reviewer has noted that the politicking surrounding the election to the academy is tedious at times and most characters are insufficiently developed and mere caricatures. Another considers the work a repetitious bagatelle designed to settle some scores in the Brazilian literary world, with fond tributes and acid attacks.

References

{{Jorge Amado 1979 novels Novels by Jorge Amado Brazilian novels Portuguese-language novels