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Cavaleiro da Esperanca: Vida de Luis Carlos Preste
Jorge Amado decidiu escrever a biografia de Prestes em 1941, como forma de pressionar pela libertação do líder revolucionário, preso desde 1936. Viajou então ao Uruguai e à Argentina, onde Prestes havia se exilado anos antes. Escrito em Buenos Aires, o livro foi publicado em 1942, em espanhol - e os primeiros exemplares eram negociados clandestinamente no Brasil. Até que a edição argentina também foi proibida e queimada por ordem do governo de Juan Domingo Perón. A primeira edição brasileira saiu em 1945. Com o golpe militar de 1964, o livro voltou a sumir das livrarias, e só reapareceu em 1979. Movido por esse espírito engajado, Jorge Amado narra os momentos mais dramáticos da trajetória de a épica coluna que atravessou o Brasil entre 1924-27, o exílio, a tentativa frustrada de levante contra Getúlio Vargas em 1935, a prisão na solitária, a entrega de Olga Benário - grávida de Anita Leocadia, que escreve o posfácio desta edição - ao governo nazista, a campanha internacional de Leocadia, mãe de Prestes, pela libertação do filho e de Olga, e pela guarda da filhinha do casal.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 1942
About the author
Jorge Amado
162 books1,724 followersJorge Amado was a modernist Brazilian writer. He remains one of the most read and translated Brazilian authors, second only to Paulo Coelho. In his style of fictional novelist, however, there is no parallel in Brazil. His work was further popularized by highly successful film and TV adaptations.
He was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1961 until his death in 2001. In 1994, his work was recognized with the Camões Prize, the most prestigious award in Portuguese literature.
His literary work presents two distinct phases. In the first, there is a clear social critic and political focus, with works such as Captains of the Sands and Sea of Death standing out.
In his more mature phase, he adopts an aspect of good-humored and sensual chronicler of his people, abandoning ideological motivations, with works such as Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.
He was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1961 until his death in 2001. In 1994, his work was recognized with the Camões Prize, the most prestigious award in Portuguese literature.
His literary work presents two distinct phases. In the first, there is a clear social critic and political focus, with works such as Captains of the Sands and Sea of Death standing out.
In his more mature phase, he adopts an aspect of good-humored and sensual chronicler of his people, abandoning ideological motivations, with works such as Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 10, 2024
This work is the novelized biography of Luís Carlos Prestes (1898-1990), written as part of the amnesty campaign for the communist leader. During the Estado Novo dictatorship, Prestes was imprisoned for his leading role in the failed 1935 revolution in Brazil.
Originally published in Spanish in 1942, when Amado was in exile in Argentina, the book circulated clandestinely in Brazil until 1945.
A huge success at the time, "O Cavaleiro da esperança" is now only a historical curiosity.
The work becomes didactic by showing how an engaged author operates. To serve the cause well, he defies form and content.
In terms of aesthetics, Amado adopts the socialist realism that prevailed in the Soviet Union.
Addressing an imaginary reader, whom he calls "friend" or "black," he pours out superlative phrases about the myth he helps to create.
Prestes emerges from the story as a caricatured hero. We are facing someone called "star in the black night, storm of the people, lightning in the darkness, northwest wind that shakes tyranny." It's as if Jorge Amado wrote while kneeling.
The style is in no way reminiscent of the novels of manners that, from the end of the 1950s, guaranteed him the prestige possible for an author who always wanted to be famous.
His communist activism marks the beginning of Amado's works. In fiction, however, the author sometimes had to bend to the party's interests, creating characters who did not fully fit the idealized model of the revolutionary proletarian.
The content could serve as a more reliable source of information. It's less a biography than a eulogy.
Leaving aside the hyperbolic adjective, perhaps the best thing is the detailed description of the Prestes Column, which crossed Brazil in the 1920s and contributed to the political circumstances that led to the Revolution of 1930.
Reporting on other episodes is not relevant to the facts. The author describes the meeting with Olga in romantic terms when it becomes known that the Soviet government had appointed Prestes' future wife to ensure his safety.
In another example, Amado clears Prestes of responsibility for the death of young Elza, a companion of a communist leader and accused of treason, when it was clear that the execution order had come from him.
The author left the Communist Party after the disclosure, in 1956, of Stalin's atrocities, but never publicly disowned "The Knight of Hope."
The closest he came to self-criticism was his 1979 admission that the work was naive. He was right.
Originally published in Spanish in 1942, when Amado was in exile in Argentina, the book circulated clandestinely in Brazil until 1945.
A huge success at the time, "O Cavaleiro da esperança" is now only a historical curiosity.
The work becomes didactic by showing how an engaged author operates. To serve the cause well, he defies form and content.
In terms of aesthetics, Amado adopts the socialist realism that prevailed in the Soviet Union.
Addressing an imaginary reader, whom he calls "friend" or "black," he pours out superlative phrases about the myth he helps to create.
Prestes emerges from the story as a caricatured hero. We are facing someone called "star in the black night, storm of the people, lightning in the darkness, northwest wind that shakes tyranny." It's as if Jorge Amado wrote while kneeling.
The style is in no way reminiscent of the novels of manners that, from the end of the 1950s, guaranteed him the prestige possible for an author who always wanted to be famous.
His communist activism marks the beginning of Amado's works. In fiction, however, the author sometimes had to bend to the party's interests, creating characters who did not fully fit the idealized model of the revolutionary proletarian.
The content could serve as a more reliable source of information. It's less a biography than a eulogy.
Leaving aside the hyperbolic adjective, perhaps the best thing is the detailed description of the Prestes Column, which crossed Brazil in the 1920s and contributed to the political circumstances that led to the Revolution of 1930.
Reporting on other episodes is not relevant to the facts. The author describes the meeting with Olga in romantic terms when it becomes known that the Soviet government had appointed Prestes' future wife to ensure his safety.
In another example, Amado clears Prestes of responsibility for the death of young Elza, a companion of a communist leader and accused of treason, when it was clear that the execution order had come from him.
The author left the Communist Party after the disclosure, in 1956, of Stalin's atrocities, but never publicly disowned "The Knight of Hope."
The closest he came to self-criticism was his 1979 admission that the work was naive. He was right.
August 22, 2025
Fale das pessoas que você gosta com a mesma empolgação que o Jorge Amado fala do Prestes. O livro é bem bom, oferece uma boa perspectiva da primeira metade da vida do Prestes e, por ter sido escrito no auge da segunda guerra, oferece também muita perspectiva sobre como as movimentações políticas e geopolíticas eram percebidas por aqui. Existem passagens que infelizmente são meio arrastadas de se ler, como partes da marcha da Coluna Prestes, que em determinados momentos se torna um amontoado de nomes (e que bom que o Jorge Amado fez o trabalho de lembrar de cada um desses nomes para dar crédito, mas isso torna a narrativa um pouco enfadonha).
Outro período que o livro se torna um pouco arrastado é quando Prestes é preso e seguido de umas 100~ páginas de tortura do Prestes, tortura de outros líderes da ALN, tortura da Olga, atualização sobre a guerra, tortura do Prestes, julgamento arranjado, tortura... Enfim, talvez esses "defeitos" no ritmo sejam características da própria história do biografado.
A forma de narrativa que o Jorge Amado encontrou para contar essa biografia também é bastante interessante.
Outro período que o livro se torna um pouco arrastado é quando Prestes é preso e seguido de umas 100~ páginas de tortura do Prestes, tortura de outros líderes da ALN, tortura da Olga, atualização sobre a guerra, tortura do Prestes, julgamento arranjado, tortura... Enfim, talvez esses "defeitos" no ritmo sejam características da própria história do biografado.
A forma de narrativa que o Jorge Amado encontrou para contar essa biografia também é bastante interessante.
December 19, 2020
رواية عادية على مستوى الأحداث والحبكة وعادية مقارنة بكتابات جورج أمادو الأخرى لكنها أشبه بكتاب عن تاريخ البرازيل
ومناضل يكتب سيرة مناضل آخر.
ومناضل يكتب سيرة مناضل آخر.
December 20, 2022
Uma defesa apaixonada de um brilhante amigo a seu par.
March 22, 2025
A gente aprende mto por cima a história desse importantíssimo personagem do nosso país. Foi isso que me remeteu a leitura dessa biografia (mesmo que não de toda sua vida) a importância de Luiz Carlos Prestes nos rumos do Brasil na primeira metade do século XX são tremendamente estratosféricos.
Sobre Jorge Amado, não é a toa que é um dos maiores escritores da nossa língua, simplesmente envolvente mesmo numa biografia densa e cheias de detalhe. Nos abre a visão embaçada que temos sobre essa personalidade que presumo não teremos a oportunidade de ver outro com tamanha grandeza.
Sobre Jorge Amado, não é a toa que é um dos maiores escritores da nossa língua, simplesmente envolvente mesmo numa biografia densa e cheias de detalhe. Nos abre a visão embaçada que temos sobre essa personalidade que presumo não teremos a oportunidade de ver outro com tamanha grandeza.
August 1, 2026
É um livro muito complexo, cheio de detalhes históricos sobre a história do Brasil especialmente a época ditatorial. Enquanto isso é narrado da infância até a vida adulta de Luiz Carlos Prestes é assim o seu impacto enquanto figura política revolucionária e símbolo de liberdade e luta por justiça. Gostei muito de relembrar um pouco da história do Brasil, achei um pouco complexa a leitura, mas ao mesmo tempo importante enquanto brasileira saber que existiu uma figura que lutou pela liberdade, formou colunas militares e até foi preso em pró da liberdade e justiça.
July 5, 2020
Un panfleto, mas que un libro, de la figura de Luis Carlos Prestes. Se comprende por la urgencia del momento de luchar por liberarle. 75 años después sólo tiene Interes para los fanáticos de Amado o quien quiera co o er ese período de la historia de Brasil. Aun que seguramente habrá libros mas objetivos
April 22, 2025
Uma das leituras mais interessantes que fiz esse ano, Jorge Amado mistura biografia com romance, manifesto político e um toque de crítica literária que alimentou e acalantou meu coração de professora de literatura. A língua e a literatura nunca foram tão vivas quanto sob os comandos de Amado.
January 30, 2024
Todo Amado es político pero ęste especialmente. Una semblanza de un héroe latinoamericano.
February 23, 2013
Gostei muito deste livro
May 28, 2014
grande Jorge Amado
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews