The folhetim (feuilleton) was a literary genre that emerged in Paris during the 1830s. Its format used the periodicity of newspapers as a structure for literary writing done in daily installments. Some of the major novels of the 19th century were published to the public in this format.
For quite some time, the genre was almost exclusively used for publishing French writers, the inventors of this type of format – the most famous, without a doubt, being Alexandre Dumas, Lamartine, Paul Favel, and Eugène Sue. Some young Brazilian writers working at newspapers did translations – often terrible ones – in record time. Machado de Assis even translated a serial novel by Victor Hugo (Toilers of the Sea) for the Diário do Rio de Janeiro, at the same time the original was being released in Paris newspapers.
Image description: The image shows a page from an old newspaper or magazine, in black and white. The spatial layout is linear, with text arranged in vertical columns. At the top, there is a prominent title, "FOLHETIM," followed by the subtitle "OS TRABALHADORES DO MAR" by Victor Hugo. Below, it reads "Primeira parto" and "O SR. CLUBIN." The main text begins with "LIVRO I. Elementos de uma má reputação." and contains several paragraphs of text. In the bottom right corner, there is a mention of "Continuação."Primeira parte do folhetim Os trabalhadores do mar, de Victor Hugo, traduzido e publicado na edição de 15 de março de 1866 do Diário do Rio de Janeiro
Little by little, local writers also made their successful bids. It was, for example, in the Diário do Rio de Janeiro that José de Alencar began his career as a fiction writer, publishing two serialized novels in a row. In 1856, he released the simple story of Cinco Minutos in ten chapters, and the following year, more precisely on January 1, 1857, he began the ambitious narrative of O Guarany in the same newspaper pages.
Image description: The image is a black-and-white book cover. At the top, the name "J. DE ALENCAR" is aligned to the left. Below it, there is a large, prominent title, "O GUARANY," in capital letters. Above the title, there is a horizontal line separating the title from the rest of the text. Next, it reads "SEGUNDA EDIÇÃO" and "TOMO PRIMEIRO." The bottom portion contains "RIO DE JANEIRO" and "B. L. GARNIER, EDITOR." There is also a mention of the street where the publisher is located, but it is not clear.Capa da primeira edição de O Guarany, de José de Alencar, 1865. Reprodução fotográfica Horst Merkel - Acervo Itaú Cultural
According to biographers, Alencar wrote each chapter daily, in line with the immense impact of the plot on the reading public. Three years earlier, Manuel Antônio de Almeida had already written, in the serialized columns(1) of the Correio Mercantil, the remarkable story of Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias. The curious thing is that, despite the success of the serialized novels, sales of their respective books, published shortly afterward, were minimal. During this period, newspaper chapters still overshadowed the continuous form of the novel.
Another author who achieved success with serialized novels was Joaquim Manuel de Macedo, one more who made journalism an antechamber to literature. Like the other writers of his time, he was a columnist, editor, reporter, and a pioneer in a kind of cultural journalism about the city, which can be read in the pages of his famous book Um passeio pela cidade do Rio de Janeiro (1862-1863). In 1844, what was perhaps the greatest success of the Second Reign was his: the novel A Moreninha. The following year, he published the novel A Carteira do meu tio. in serialized form in Marmota Fluminense. Along the same lines, Machado de Assis published novels such as A Mão e a Luva (1874) and Helena (1876) in the feuilleton section of the newspaper O Globo.
Image description: The image is a black-and-white engraving of a man wearing a classic suit with a tie. He is shown in profile facing left, with a beard and short hair. The background is white, with no additional details. At the top of the image, there is text in Portuguese, mentioning "O Binoculo" and the date April 19, 1882. Below the portrait, there is more text about Dr. Joaquim Manoel de Macedo.Capa do jornal O Binóculo, com imagem do escritor Joaquim Manuel de Macedo, 1882. BN Digital
Until the maturing of a publishing market that allowed authors to publish their stories directly and exclusively in books, the serial was the reading public's favorite format, following the chapters of the stories the way today's television soap operas are followed. Its dynamic, however, being strictly tied to Romanticism, caused the genre to succumb with the decline of the French school in Rio's literature.
(1) Space in newspapers reserved for serialized fiction.
