Summary
Summary of Quincas Borba
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A fortune exposes a gentle man
Rubião is a kind schoolteacher from the hills of Minas Gerais who nurses his dying friend, Quincas Borba. His reward is an inheritance that includes a fortune and a dog bearing the philosopher’s name. Caring for the animal is the condition attached to his new wealth.
He moves to Rio de Janeiro, where new friends and eager guests take an interest in him. Money opens doors, but his simple trust leaves him exposed to people whose welcome may have more to do with his fortune than his character.
Key idea 2
Humanitas makes victory its own excuse
Start free to read
Key idea 3
The inheritance changes Rubião’s ambitions
Start free to read
Key idea 4
Friendly attention hides a trap
Start free to read
Key idea 5
Money protects an uneasy friendship
Start free to read
Key idea 6
Public ambition joins private desire
Start free to read
Key idea 7
Generosity gives way to dependence
Start free to read
Key idea 8
The narrator keeps judgment unsettled
Start free to read
Key idea 9
Kindness faces a selfish world
Start free to read
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
You will enjoy this book if you like witty narrators, studies of social climbing, love triangles seen with a cool eye, stories set in nineteenth-century cities, and characters whose small vanities and big dreams drive the plot.
What this book is
Quincas Borba is a novel by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis, published in the 1890s as a follow-up to The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. It follows a schoolteacher from the hills of Minas Gerais who inherits a fortune, a dog, and a strange philosophy from a dying friend. The book gives you a sly, funny and sad look at money, vanity and desire in the Rio de Janeiro of the 1860s and 1870s.
The man at the center is Rubião, a kind and simple fellow who nurses a dying thinker named Quincas Borba. When the will is read, Rubião owns everything, and the only condition is that he care for the dog that bears his friend's name. He moves to the capital, where a pair of new friends, a lovely woman, and a crowd of hungry guests all take an interest in his wealth. The narrator speaks to you directly, jokes, and wanders off into asides, yet never loses sight of his people.
This summary walks through the story in order and then looks at its themes and its way of telling. We begin with the deathbed lesson that sets everything going: a philosophy called Humanitism, built on a hidden principle named Humanitas, and a tale about two tribes and a field of potatoes.
In this summary
- 1A dying philosopher teaches HumanitasFree
- 2A strange will makes Rubião rich
- 3A train ride begins a dangerous friendship
- 4A night in the garden goes wrong
- 5Politics, partnership and a new circle of friends
- 6Rubião spends, hopes and doubts
- 7A wedding, a fall in fortune, and a shift in the mind
- 8What the book says about wealth, vanity and delusion
- 9A narrator who talks to you
Key point 1 of 9
A dying philosopher teaches Humanitas
The story opens in Botafogo, where Rubião stands at a window and counts his luck. A year earlier he was a poor teacher. Now he owns a house, a garden, a view of the bay and a silver tray he adores. Then the narrator takes us back a few months to Barbacena, in Minas Gerais, and to the sickbed of Quincas Borba.
Quincas Borba is the same eccentric who appeared in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, a beggar turned heir and inventor of a philosophy. In Barbacena he is dying slowly. Rubião closes his boys' school to nurse him for nearly six months, and his care is real. A dog with a lead-colored coat shares the sick man's bed, and the philosopher has given it his own name.
One day the sick man explains his doctrine. Humanitas, he says, is a single hidden principle that lives in everything. Individuals are only bubbles in boiling water. He tells how his grandmother was run down by a carriage and calls it no tragedy at all, because the owner of the carriage was hungry and Humanitas needs to eat.
Then comes the famous tale of the potatoes. Two hungry tribes face a field that can feed only one. War, he says, is good, since the winner crosses the mountain and survives. For the defeated there is hatred or pity, and for the victor, the potatoes. Rubião barely follows, but the lesson sinks in and will return.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Check yourself
What does Quincas Borba’s tale of the potatoes teach?
Right. “War, he says, is good, since the winner crosses the mountain and survives.”Not quite. “War, he says, is good, since the winner crosses the mountain and survives.”
Why does Palha downplay Rubião’s behavior toward Sophia?
Right. “Palha is shaken, but he owes Rubião money, so he suggests that nothing serious has happened.”Not quite. “Palha is shaken, but he owes Rubião money, so he suggests that nothing serious has happened.”
How does the narrator’s comic tone affect the story’s sadness?
Right. “Watch the way the comic tone makes the sadder moments hit harder.”Not quite. “Watch the way the comic tone makes the sadder moments hit harder.”
Who’s who
- Rubião
- A provincial schoolteacher and Quincas Borba’s companion, he enters Rio society with inherited wealth and romantic hopes.
- Quincas Borba
- An eccentric philosopher and Rubião’s friend, he teaches Humanitism and owns a dog bearing his name.
- Sofia
- Cristiano Palha’s socially accomplished wife, she becomes the focus of Rubião’s increasingly consuming romantic attention.
- Cristiano Palha
- Sofia’s business-minded husband, he befriends Rubião and becomes involved in managing the provincial newcomer’s money.
- Quincas Borba (dog)
- The philosopher’s namesake dog becomes Rubião’s charge under the terms attached to his unexpected inheritance.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 79,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 5 h 15 min
- Listening time8 h 45 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Quincas Borba
What is Quincas Borba about?
It tells of Rubião, a kind teacher who inherits a fortune and a dog from the philosopher Quincas Borba, moves to Rio de Janeiro, and is drawn into love, politics and spending as people around him take advantage of his wealth.
What is Humanitas in Quincas Borba?
Humanitas is the philosophy invented by the dying Quincas Borba. It claims that one universal principle lives in all things, that individuals are like bubbles in boiling water, and that conflict is useful because the winner survives.
Do I need to read The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas first?
No. The philosopher Quincas Borba first appears in that earlier novel, and the narrator mentions it, but this book tells its own complete story about Rubião, so you can start here and follow everything.
Why is the dog named Quincas Borba too?
The philosopher gave the dog his own name because he believed Humanitas lives in all creatures and because he hoped to survive in the name of his pet. The will then makes the dog's care a condition of the inheritance.
What is the main message of Quincas Borba?
The book shows how money, vanity and self-interest shape friendship and love, and it tests the idea that the strong deserve to win. It does so with humor, short chapters and a narrator who comments on his own characters.
