Dora, Doralina

by Rachel de Queiroz, Dorothy Scott Loos (Translator)

"What kills you today is forgotten tomorrow. I don't know if this is true or false because all that's real for me is remembrance." In her old age, Dora reflects on the major influences in her life: her mother, her career in the theater, and her one true love. Set in Brazil in the early part of the century, Dora, Doralina is a story about power. Through her fierce resistance to her mother and her later life as a working woman and widow, Doralina attempts to define herself in a time and culture which places formidable obstacles before women. Married off by her mother to a man she does not love, told what to wear and eat, Dora's reclaiming of herself is full of both discovery and rage. For her, independence is the right to protect herself and make her own choices. From a life confined by religion and "respectability," even her passionate attachment to a hard-drinking smuggler contains an act of free will previously unavailable to her. Dora, Doralina is an intimate, realistic, and vivid glimpse of one woman's struggle for independence, for a life in which she owns her actions, her pleasure, and her pain.

Genres: Fiction, Brazil, Classics, Novels, Literature, Portuguese Literature

281 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Quinta ocupante da Cadeira 5, eleita em 4 de agosto de 1977, na sucessão de Candido Motta Filho e recebida pelo Acadêmico Adonias Filho em 4 de novembro de 1977.

Raquel de Queirós nasceu em Fortaleza (CE), em 17 de novembro de 1910, e faleceu no Rio de Janeiro (RJ) em 4 de novembro de 2003. Filha de Daniel de Queirós e de Clotilde Franklin de Queirós, descende, pelo lado materno, da estirpe dos Alencar, parente portanto do autor ilustre de O Guarani, e, pelo lado paterno, dos Queirós, família de raízes profundamente lançadas no Quixadá e Beberibe.

Em 1917, veio para o Rio de Janeiro, em companhia dos pais que procuravam, nessa migração, fugir dos horrores da terrível seca de 1915, que mais tarde a romancista iria aproveitar como tema de O Quinze, seu livro de estréia. No Rio, a família Queirós pouco se demorou, viajando logo a seguir para Belém do Pará, onde residiu por dois anos.

Em 1919, regressou a Fortaleza e, em 1921, matriculou-se no Colégio da Imaculada Conceição, onde fez o curso normal, diplomando-se em 1925, aos 15 anos de idade.

Estreou em 1927, com o pseudônimo de Rita de Queirós, publicando trabalho no jornal O Ceará, de que se tornou afinal redatora efetiva. Em fins de 1930, publicou o romance O Quinze, que teve inesperada e funda repercussão no Rio de em São Paulo. Com vinte anos apenas, projetava-se na vida literária do país, agitando a bandeira do romance de fundo social, profundamente realista na sua dramática exposição da luta secular de um povo contra a miséria e a seca.

O livro, editado às expensas da autora, apareceu em modesta edição de mil exemplares, impresso no Estabelecimento Gráfico Urânia, de Fortaleza. Recebeu crítica de Augusto Frederico Schmidt, Graça Aranha, Agripino Grieco e Gastão Gruls. A consagração veio com o Prêmio da Fundação Graça Aranha.

Em 1932, publicou um novo romance, intitulado João Miguel, e em 1937, retornou com Caminho de pedras. Dois anos depois, conquistou o prêmio da Sociedade Felipe de Oliveira, com o romance As três Marias. Em 1950, publicou em folhetins, na revista O Cruzeiro, o romance O galo de ouro.

Cronista emérita, publicou mais de duas mil crônicas, cuja seleta propiciou a edição dos seguintes livros: A donzela e a Moura Torta, 100 crônicas escolhidas, O brasileiro perplexo e O caçador de tatu. No Rio, onde passou a residir em 1939, colaborou no Diário de Notícias, em O Cruzeiro e em O Jornal. Escreveu duas peças de teatro, Lampião, em 1953, e A Beata Maria do Egito, de 1958, laureada com o prêmio de teatro do Instituto Nacional do Livro, além de O padrezinho santo, peça que escreveu para a televisão, ainda inédita em livro. No campo da literatura infantil, escreveu o livro O menino mágico, a pedido de Lúcia Benedetti. O livro surgiu, entretanto, das histórias que inventava para os netos. Dentre as suas atividades, destacavam-se também a de tradutora, com cerca de quarenta volumes vertidos para o português.

Foi membro do Conselho Federal de Cultura, desde a sua fundação, em 1967, até sua extinção, em 1989. Participou da 21ª Sessão da Assembleia Geral da ONU, em 1966, onde serviu como delegada do Brasil, trabalhando especialmente na Comissão dos Direitos do Homem. Em 1988, iniciou sua colaboração semanal no jornal O Estado de São Paulo e no Diário de Pernambuco.

Recebeu o Prêmio Nacional de Literatura de Brasília para conjunto de obra em 1980; o título de Doutor Honoris Causa pela Universidade Federal do Ceará, em 1981; a Medalha Mascarenhas de Morais, em solenidade realizada no Clube Militar (1983); a Medalha Rio Branco, do Itamarati (1985); a Medalha do Mérito Militar no grau de Grande Comendador (1986); a Medalha da Inconfidência do Governo de Minas Gerais (1989); O Prêmio Luís de Camões (1993); o Prêmio Moinho Santista, na categoria de romance (1996); o título de Doutor Honoris Causa, pela Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (2000). Em 2000, foi eleita para o elenco dos “20 Brasileiros empreendedores do Século XX”, em pesquisa r

Reviews

[Jim Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Brazilian novel from 1975 gets off to a slow start but picks up and I it found it fascinating in the end. A young woman has a difficult relationship with her domineering mother. She never even calls her by the word ‘mother’ – instead, like the servants her mother rules with an iron fist on her small fazenda (hacienda), she calls her “Senhora.”

Eventually the young woman marries an older man whom everyone thought was interested in her mother, not the daughter. The husband is killed in just a few years in a hunting accident. The young woman leaves home, goes to a big city in northeastern Brazil, and become an actress in a traveling theatre troupe. Her avoidance of her mother is such that she only corresponds with home by letters to and from servants and she never sees her mother again even when she learns her mother has had a stroke. Her husband has started an affair with her mother! And his death may or may not have really been an accident. ...



There is a lot of detail, perhaps too much, of the business of running a traveling theater. The ins and outs of the frictions among the dozen or so players and musicians is good material – after all, they are all prima donnas, including the main character. But the details of the money, the stage scenery, renting halls, fixing sets, getting from one place to another (often by ship) sometimes seems too detailed. We learn a bit about Brazilian theater in those days, oriented more to a Portuguese rather than Brazilian style of accent, and we also learn a bit about regional Brazilian accents. We know the time of the story is around WW II because there is fear of German submarines targeting the ships they sometimes travel on.

As an actress she has a lot of male admirers. Eventually the still-young woman gets remarried to a glamorous captain of a river boat. This says it all: “Yes, for me he was a god: he came as a god, lived like a god, and would die a god; and when he left it was the end of the world for me.”

After they are married she leaves the itinerant theater life and the captain switches his career from captain to smuggler – everything from precious stones to American penicillin stolen from the US Army. She lives in an apartment in Rio do Janeiro and becomes ‘married to the mob.’ Smuggling is a dangerous occupation and he hangs out with unsavory characters, drinking and waiving his gun, and gets involved with police and army officials and bribery of government officials.

He’s older than her and dies from typhoid after a fairly short marriage. What is she to do now? Her mother has died, so she goes back to the old fazenda she has inherited and becomes her mother! All in all, a good story that held my attention all the way through.



The author (1910-2003) started out as a journalist, wrote a half-dozen novels, and was the first woman admitted to the Brazilian Academy of Letters. She also was appointed as Brazil’s representative to the United Nations.

Photo of Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, the author's home town.
Sculpture of the author on a bench in Fortaleza. (Like Pessoa's stautue in Lisbon.)

[Bob Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

not a life foretold

In the Brazil of the 1930s and ‘40s, women of good reputation didn’t have a lot of choice of life path. Of course, that was true in most of the world at the time. If feminism is often about challenging that fact, then this is certainly a feminist book, even if it takes a very mild tack. I don’t know much about the stated views of the author, but she certainly portrays a rebel here, albeit a rebel who falls in love with a real macho man and caters to his every wish. Dôra, whose name connects to “pain” in Portuguese, grows up without a father, under the thumb of an imperious, unloving mother who rules the country fazenda where she lives like a queen. Dôra always calls her Senhora, not Mom or Mother. Dôra has servants, but no friends. She marries her only suitor, a man much older than she, a man who has more of an eye to the property that Dôra will inherit, than for the girl herself. Laurindo, the husband, also has an eye for Mom, which proves fatal, though a hunting accident is blamed. Widowed and childless, Dôra hits the road and winds up in town (this is in Fortaleza, in the northeast of Brazil, along the coast) working in a cheap theatre troupe that travels all over Brazil, barely keeping head above water, usually in debt. On a river steamer, she meets the Captain and it’s true love at first sight. Her time of happiness begins—she’s Doralina then. The Captain winds up in the smuggling business. She spends some years with him, they settle in Rio de Janeiro, but well, if you want to know what happens, read the book. Life is a circle.
While most women stayed home or worked in certain fixed occupations, Dôra/Doralina ignored some strict rules, left home, broke with her mother, worked in public, did not marry or have kids, and ultimately wound up rather powerful and wealthy. It wasn’t a standard life. She decided everything on her own and did not accept what others wanted to put onto her. In that way, it’s a feminist book showing a different path to those stuck in restricting circumstances.
It’s well-written or well-translated book, but does not stand out in the way that so many great novels do. It’s competently-written with a lot of interesting pictures of Brazilian life in that epoch. With the element of feminist “glance” added, I think it is a novel of interest to people of many different backgrounds.

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book to fill the Q position in my quest to read women authors A-Z in 2018. I will honestly tell you that it is not a novel that I would naturally pick up so I probably didn’t appreciate it as much as someone who regularly reads literary fiction.

This is a character driven story which reads very much like an autobiography. It is basically a window into the world of women in Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century. Brazilian society, as in many societies at the time, is extremely macho and women don’t have all that much latitude.

The book is divided into three sections, representing three stages in the life of our narrator, Dora. The first section is Dora growing up and struggling with the control of her domineering mother. Dora refers to her as Senhora, not mother, and seems to be one of the only people in the household who longs for freedom. Dora ends up in a marriage which was more-or-less engineered by Senhora, and while she doesn’t mind her husband, she’s not desperately fond of him either. When he is killed, Dora takes a page from her mother’s playbook and uses her widowhood to give herself more freedom in the world.

The second section is Dora’s adventures in the world outside her mother’s farm. She finds employment and eventually ends up on stage, despite her shyness. She is both fiercely independent and highly reliant on her friends in the acting company, a duality that she freely acknowledges. And it is during her travels with the company that she meets the love of her life.

Part three is her life with The Captain. He reminded me of her first husband in several ways (his drinking, his macho possessiveness) but Dora’s feelings for him make the marriage an altogether different experience from the first.

Documenting women’s lives is an important pursuit, filling in the blanks of previously ignored reality. The novel also shows the particular barriers that many South American women are up against culturally.

[Selene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Brazilian literature. And when I saw this book at the back of my grandparent's bookshelf, I was immediately intrigued.

I think it was the lackluster cover, but I didn't expect much from it, considering the other big names in Brazil. But let me say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Another reviewer suggested that the language is very plain and the narrative recounts things in a very straightforward manner. This is true, but I think perhaps the translation to English has something to do with the, at times, robotic description of things.

Brazilian Portuguese is rich with description and animacy, and despite the English translation I could feel that same Brazilian oral history coming through Dora's story. I found the characters to be developed nicely, and engaging throughout (Seu Brandini especially). I laughed, I sighed, I gasped.

The thing I found interesting and also annoying at times was that I think Rachel de Quieroz wrote this at the height of the woman's rights movement. Dora, especially during her younger years, unfortunately just comes off as a self-entitled brat, instead of an emotionally abused, burgeoning independent spirit. So, her complaining about her mother and husband seems forced at first, until we find out about her mother's betrayal...

I would recommend this book, especially if you're a fan of Brazilian literature. If you can get it in Portuguese, probably even better!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been wracking my brain for about 5 years now, trying to remember the name of a Brazilian book I read in the 90's. I Googled the subject, no luck. Until today!

This book stayed with me (even if the title/author didn't) so I am giving it 4 stars.

What I remember: the sad life of a wealthy woman in the early 20th century with an absolutely horrible mother and a horrible marriage. She runs off to join a theater troupe and meets the love of her life. Eventually her life circles back to the plantation she grew up on but it is on her own terms.

I see in the few reviews of this book that not everyone loves this book. I have noticed that in the years since I have read it, every now and then a scene from this book flashes into my mind, some of the dialog even. It was sad and moving and just struck a chord in me 25 years ago.

[Ladyce West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ao terminar Dôra, Doralina, de Rachel de Queiroz, eu me pergunto o motivo dela não ser mencionada entre os grandes da literatura brasileira, no mesmo altar de Machado, Graciliano e Guimarães Rosa, Clarice. Dela li três livros: O Quinze, Memorial de Maria Moura e agora, este, publicado em 1975. Rachel de Queiroz não deixa a desejar quando comparada com os grandes nomes da nossa literatura. E não listá-la entre os maiores é injustiça e um desserviço à tão maltratada cultura brasileira.

Dôra, Doralina conta mais do que a história de vida de Maria das Dores, mulher herdeira de uma fazenda no interior do Ceará, completamente dominada pela mãe, a quem chamava Senhora e que depois de viúva, foge deste lugar, encontra abrigo emocional como membro de um grupo de teatro mambembe, com eles viaja ao Rio de Janeiro, no período da ditadura Vargas e da Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Na capital do país amasia-se com um comandante que conheceu na viagem pelo Rio São Francisco a caminho do sul. Com ele, perdidamente apaixonada, vive em altos e baixos, tensa com gênio violento do companheiro e por seus ciúmes. Eventualmente se vê envolvida, a contragosto, na contravenção. Mas o flerte com a vida de segredos e transgressões não lhe era desconhecido, já deixara os rincões cearenses com tralha semelhante.

Narrativa rica em assuntos controversos, que cobre com vocabulário exemplar e de fácil compreensão, relata não só a descoberta do amor para Dôra, como também, por causa de suas limitadas experiências fora do local onde nasceu, seu próprio acordar para o mundo e para si mesma. E conselhos não lhe servem para nada, como diz: “Gente nova não adivinha nem quer adivinhar certas coisas; e mesmo quando tem um aviso, dez avisos, não acredita.”

Central na trama estão as relações familiares, e a ausência delas; amizades e a complexidade das emoções humanas. Há traição, abuso, arrogância, ciúmes pontuados esparsamente por lealdade e honestidade. É uma obra de realismo físico e emocional, refinada pela palavra certa, ritmo preciso e relato direto, sem bordados.

Recomendo a leitura. A obra de Rachel de Queiroz, a primeira mulher a ingressar na Academia Brasileira de Letras, deve fazer parte da lista de leitura de qualquer brasileiro curioso sobre a rica herança literária do país. Nota 10.

[Luciana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ler as obras de Rachel de Queiroz é sempre um grande prazer, uma vez que com uma linguagem precisa, narra com sensibilidade a dor que tanto habitou e habita no sertão, seja tocando em temáticas da fome, como em O Quinze, seja sobre a independência e representatividade feminina, como em Memorial de Maria Moura.

Em Dôra, Doralina, estamos diante de uma história menos empolgante que as citadas acima, mas ainda assim a trama conta com momentos cômicos, com as desilusões, dor e felicidade que acomete nossa protagonista: uma jovem viúva que, tendo um relacionamento conturbado com a mãe, resolve deixar a fazenda Soledade e partir para Fortaleza, onde a vida a aguarda.

Buscando independência, se unindo a vida do teatro e assim percorrendo o país, Dôra por fim se vê livre da prisão que antes lhe era imposta, ao lado do Comandante percorre a cidade do Rio e lá conhece o machismo, o contrabando, o carnaval, a empatia, o ciúme e o amor.

É, portanto, uma obra menor, se o leitor desejar iniciar ler Rachel, talvez deva começar por O Quinze ou Memorial de Maria Moura. A quem já conhece a escritora, a obra certamente agradará, mesmo sendo mais apática, ficando, de tal modo sua recomendação.

[Josh Doughty · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a surprise.

After reading 100 Years Of Solitude, I noticed my wife owned this compilation box set that had different authors with Marquez and this happened to be one of them.

Dôra Doralina, a daughter living on a plantation with a few lively and interesting characters, starts off (Senhoras Book) escaping her roots. Dôra and her mother Senhora never got along. She marries a man named Laurindo. She befriends Delmiro (favorite character). Dôra is suspicious and correct with her mother and Laurindo’s affair and is found dead in first of 3 books inside the book proper.

Dôra then emancipates herself from her hometown and all that she wishes to escape to find herself in a new place full of quirky characters and employing herself in plays, touring the country (Book of the Company). This pet takes place before and during WW2 and it’s nice to see a perspective not obvious to the general eye. War does affect everyone. We encounter Dôras new love interest “The Captain”.

Dôra is then married to The Captain and slowly recedes back to a normal life (The Captains Book). We find out through multiple telegrams of not only Senhora’s death, but also of Delmiro. The Captain is also caught up in an interesting penicillin smuggling gig. Dôra finds herself with The Captain back to her home town where we receive a wealth of closure. Unfortunately, The Captain dies of what they believed to be Typhoid.

The book itself initially irked the hell out of me due to its memoir-style where Dôra would hint in the future “so and so” would happen, but overall it was rather charming.

A lot of the cultural aspects escaped me but is well worth your time.

It appears only “The Three Marias” published by University Of Texas is available in translation outside of this one and should be arriving in the mail tomorrow.

I wonder what Piranhas tastes like…

[Ben Loory · Rating 1 out of 5]

i have read worse books in my life-- many, MANY worse books (A Prescription for Love, for one)... i have read stupider books, like stephen king's The Dark Half... i have read more irritating books, books that made me want to MURDER the author (miranda july's No One Belongs Here More Than You Stories)... and of course just plain silly, pointless, ineffectual commercial bullshit (ken follett's Code to Zero, for one unremarkable example)... but never before in my entire life have i read a book this BORING. this DULL, UNIMAGINATIVE, and POINTLESS. fine, you want to write a realistic novel... something could still happen in it... and if you didn't want anything to actually happen, you could maybe have a character who was interesting?? or perhaps a narrator with some thoughts??? or a discernible prose style??? a sense of beauty???? a sense of ugliness???? ...right???? there's just nothing.... no drama... no humor... no pathos... no interesting scenes.... no suspense...... no satire....... NOTHING. it's just a 300 page list of events..... very few of which seem to even be causally connected.... not to make it sound like this is some kind of experimental novel, because it isn't-- far from it, this is probably the most pedestrian book i've ever read.... it doesn't go anywhere.... it never threatens to go anywhere.... GOD DAMN THIS BOOK SUCKS.

so... lesson learned: all brazilian authors are not machado de assis, clarice lispector, or joao guimaraes rosa. some of them are... i don't even know who to compare this to... it's like a really bad female hemingway with no sense of story.

traumatic. don't read this. it will make you unhappy.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

novel about Brazil in the 30's and 40's . very interesting - reads like an autobiography; in three sections of a woman's life. this is the second book by this author I have read and I will keep on the lookout for more.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book I moved from house to house for 40 years on the theory that I would read it again someday. Someday arrived and it was worth all the moves.

[Camila Gimenez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que livro sensacional! A voz que Rachel dá a Doralina é de uma delicadeza sem igual.

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The back of the book led me to believe there would be a lot of Mother-Daughter drama. Instead, there was not. There's no climactic scene, no resolution in the end. I can live with having my expectations subverted, but...meh. If you're not going to give me fireworks, give me something else. I wonder if the first part, which has a very strong voice and a distinct acknowledgement of the difference between history and memory, between what we tell ourselves and what we tell others, is the only part people read when they call it a "psychological novel" (also from the back of the book).

Senhora is a stereotypical tough widow, distant mother. Dora's interiority is carefully created, but she's not that interesting, or she leaves a lot out (that would be giving the author a lot of benefit of the doubt: yeah, the narrator could have talked about more interesting stuff, but chose to misdirect us with all the stuff about her life away from her mother when clearly her life was actually all about her mother. Maybe...). Her attraction to Laurindo is unexplained, given the detailed focus on the Captain later. I guess as a young woman living on a fazenda, she had no chance to meet men or learn "the ways of the world"? And so when he came, she seized on him as what was supposed to happen? And stealing him from her mom was the cherry on top? Only to find out that he was probably after their money, so she turns away from him. She spends a lot of time talking about her internal reactions to rumors and gossip, but relatively little time on her interactions with him. Maybe there were none? She shut down? And then when she finds out about their betrayal, she just leaves. No confrontation. I don't believe her that the whole thing gradually faded from her mind. Her whole life was a study in contrast with her mom--moving around, being an actress, living in Rio, "shacking up" with the Captain. All of it has the taint of unrespectability that her mom spent so much time trying to cultivate.

And her relationship with the Captain. If someone took MY ring and bit it and threw it in the ocean, I would NOT be in love with him. And the jealousy. I just don't get the thrill of having someone be jealous--flying off the handle, trying to set limits on one's behavior. No, thank you.

It was a quick read. I enjoyed the landscape descriptions and the rhythm of the writing--it's a graceful translation, preserving the regional flavor and allowing the untranslatable to stand. But I didn't find it deep or complex or even a clearly structured story. A bunch of stuff happens. The end.

For those of you keeping track: the relevance to the pandemic is a case of typhoid and questions about isolation. I wondered why I'd picked this book right now, and that was why, I guess. Didn't KNOW that ahead of time, but there it is.

[Alan Henrique · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eu - que odeio esses programas de tevê que só passam desgraça, gente chorando, morte, crime etc - acho que sou meio "urubu" literário, porque de toda a história de Dorinha com o Comandante, gostei mais foi dessa parte final com a descrição do luto e da tristeza depois que ele se foi, e até pra morrer esse homem conseguiu ser sarna! Ao ler a cena da página 421 só consegui pensar: se o Comandante fosse vivo agora em 2021, não usaria máscara, negaria a gravidade da Covid-19, tomaria remédios sem comprovação pra fazer "tratamento precoce" (já deu pra entender, né? ri por dentro, mas foi mais de nervoso)

"Na fazenda eu estava só de novo, mas era uma espécie de solidão povoada, uma solidão que eu conhecia, solidão antiga que eu trazia no sangue." (p. 405)

"Se a menina que eu já fui faz mais de vinte anos e o retrato registrou, hoje está perdida, sepultada no tempo, tal como na morte - sim, quem dirá então quem já morreu?" (p. 412).

Voltarei pra falar mais - essa já deve ser a quinta resenha que tô devendo

[Katrinka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Either I missed something or the author did. The book started out alright, but by the end, I wasn't sure what the point was.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

O livro é dividido em três partes, cada um com uma etapa importante da vida de Dôra. O primeiro é o "livro da Senhora", ou seja, a parte da vida dela que ela vive na fazenda Soledad, em Aroeiras, sob o reinado de sua mãe, que comanda com pulso firme tanto a fazenda como todos que vivem nela. Anos depois, quando volta, Dôra fala que a fazenda está impregnada com o cheiro de Senhora, com o modo como ela fazia as coisas lá, como a mãe dela tinha sido tão onipresente nesse lugar que cada pessoa ali parecia ainda vê-la em todos os lugares, por mais que estivesse morta. Foi a parte que eu mais gostei, não apenas porque eu sempre me atraio por romances que focam bastante nas relações parentais mas também pelo plot twist do final desse capítulo. A segunda parte, que é o livro da Companhia, foi a que menos gostei. Por mais que, paradoxalmente, fosse uma época que Dôra estava finalmente fazendo suas próprias decisões e se apropriando de seu corpo, pra mim parecia mais que ela estava perdida e sendo levada pela correnteza. E por mais que Brandini tenha se tornado um personagem importante e meio que uma figura paterna pra ela, ele me pareceu muito "gaiato", muito aproveitador de um modo geral. Acho que não gosto desse tipo de gente então não gosto desse tipo de personagem. A terceira parte, o livro do Comandante, está na verdade sempre presente nas duas partes anteriores, porque o amor de Dôra por Asmodeus (amei o nome!) permeia tudo e tinge as memórias dela do passado. O final me deu um aperto grande no coração, e me lembrou da tetralogia napolitana quando Lenu volta a morar no bairro onde nasceu. Um ciclo redondo pra o que considero, de um modo, um romance de formação. Um livro muito bonito, muito diferente de "O quinze", também da Rachel.

[Mikaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aquele livro que se encerra com aquele sentimento de "que escrita!". Com uma narrativa que parece uma conversa, vamos acompanhando a emancipação da jovem Dôra, entre as aventuras e as dores da vida. Durante o percurso, personagens como Seu Brandini, Senhora e Comandante até parecem respirar para fora das páginas de tão reais, seja nas virtudes e nos defeitos.
Entre os costumes racistas e machistas da época, representados pela fala de "sinhá" de Dôra (mesmo após a escravidão) e de sua visão sobre os homens, o livro também serve como uma peça histórica de seu tempo, o que pode ser um pouco chocante em alguns momentos.
Não espere uma narrativa "fofinha", mas sim uma história com surpresas interessantes, que alinha ciclos da vida e emancipação feminina com uma ótima escrita.

[Rosana Schone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dôra, Doralina is divided into three parts and the character of Maria das Dores develops throughout the parts: 1) The Lady's book 2) The Company's book and 3) The Commander's book. The character goes through pain all her life, the bad relationship with the authoritarian mother, the betrayal of the first husband with his own mother, the macho and abusive relationship with the second husband. The novel shows machismo at the time, her choice who worked in the theater in the name of an abusive love, many times. In the diversity of life's circumstances it changes, but returns to its origin.

[Carolina Marchesin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muito muito muito bom. O que mais me choca é que a escrita envelhece com as personagens, a gente percebe o amadurecimento ao longo do livro de um jeito muito doido. Cheguei a me irritar várias vezes com Dôra, principalmente nos dois primeiros livros, mas a mulher que ela se tornou se mostrou diferente (apesar de ser uma mulher de seu tempo, claro). E Rachel de Queiroz trata de vários dos sentimentos agudos da vida de um jeito muito real. Que mulher!!!

[Helena Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
Uma leitura simples de um jeito bom. Dôra é honesta e direta e as anedotas que ela conta sobre sua vida tem a delicadeza das coisas reais. A trajetória do livro é muito bonita, mas nunca idealizada, e os locais e pessoas e modos de falar tão brasileiros trazem um toque familiar e único. As relações interpessoais e os personagens tridimensionais e complexos são os pontos fortes para mim.

[Bebel Sader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ano passado tive meu primeiro encontro com Rachel de Queiroz. Na minha segunda leitura da autora sigo encantada com sua prosa leve e envolvente e personagens tão reais e com traços tão brasileiros. Uma pena que Rachel de Queiroz não seja um desses clássicos de leitura obrigatória na escola.

[Regina Porto]

Nesse livro Raquel de Queiroz se mostra uma excelente contadora de história.

[Beatriz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma obra-prima, apenas.

[Amanda Luiza Queiroz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que inesperado e inesquecível! Um livro-tesouro ❤️

[Luis Flores · Rating 1 out of 5]

literally nothing happens.

[Lara Desanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

História da Maria das Dores no processo de ser Doralina, depois de ser Dôra. Não nasceu pra "senhora", mas penso que sua mãe, talvez, também não tenha nascido pra isso e teve que se tornar. Mãe e filha experimentaram uma viuvez precoce, mãe e filha só foram "senhora" ao se verem sozinhas na Fazenda Soledade. Como seria se o bebê de Dôra tivesse sobrevivido? Penso que a trajetória seria outra, claro, porém ainda mais direta pela trilha que a mãe deixara.

[Lauren Ahmad · Rating 1 out of 5]

I marked this shit as read even though I didn’t finish it I just couldn’t— it was a cool concept but overall the narrator is so mf annoying. 30 pages left still just couldn’t do it so im putting it to rest.

[Gabi Machi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel nos faz acompanhar a vida de Dôra desde criança, sob os cuidados da autoritária mãe, até se transformar em uma mulher, que conheceu a felicidade e o amor, mas que acaba triste, endurecida pela vida, como a própria mãe sempre foi e ela tanto rejeitou e odiou.
Será que por mais que a gente queira se diferenciar dos nossos pais e alçar vôos mais altos, no fim sempre voltamos, física ou emocionalmente, ao mesmo lugar de onde viemos, como Dôra?
O livro todo tem o ritmo encantador de Rachel de Queiroz, a gente sente que a Dôra está do nosso lado, contando sua história, com seu jeitinho regional de falar. Todo o romance é pontuado pela dor que a Dôra amadurecida, que nos conta a história, sente.
Dôra, Doralina é um romance sobre felicidade, dor e destino. Um clássico da literatura brasileira!

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to slog through this book in college. I was writing a paper on Marianismo and Machismo in Latin American Literature, or something like that. All I remember about it was that the mother was strict, or a nag, (the titular Dora resents her) and her husband had an affair with her mother (I think?). Otherwise, everything else is a blur. I don't even remember that this book was set in Brazil. I do remember an old, antiquated tomb of a house (by the sound of the description, I felt trapped, or maybe it's just an impression I got because schoolwork is)It was terribly boring, but not as boring as Alejo Carpentier's Lost Steps. That one made me want to kill myself with its philosophical musings.

[Lilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read. Family, Love, Sadness, Adventure and Death all meet at the end. No matter how much Dora didn''t want to be like Senhora, at the end, that is what she became.