ABSTRACT
This article analyzes different texts covering José Veríssimo’s life, work and personality to assess the author’s place in Brazilian thought as representative of the critical and literary history produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as his educational performance and Amazonian studies. With a theoretical approach to history and literary criticism, the article examines the trajectory of the critical fortune that scrutinized José Veríssimo’s intellectual production throughout the 20th century, from newspaper serials to his university thesis. From this intellectual trajectory marked by thematic diversity, an encyclopedic approach, and scholarly knowledge, there emerged the image of “Mr. Critico”: a metonymy that highlighted the literary critic/historian over the nineteenth-century intellectual polygrapher.
Keywords
José Veríssimo; Intellectual Trajectory; Literary Consecration; History and Literary Criticism; Critical Fortune