The present article purposes to analyse the circulation in liberal newspapers of Machado de Assis' essay "Notícia da atual literatura brasileira: instinto de nacionalidade" (1873). The article starts with a comment on "Notícia", then it tries to extend its framework of analysis, highlighting relations between some criteria used by Machado on his criticism of novels and some themes explored in the liberal newspapers. These two moments of the article - on the circulation and on the criteria - raise discussions on some mystification of Machado's writing practices.
"Instinto de nacionalidade"; liberal press; novels