A Escrava Isaura 9.88 · 9.88

André's whispered horror is the moral weather of the scene. The pageboy, himself enslaved and moments ago Isaura's own would-be suitor, recoils where his master feels nothing — 'espantado', aghast, invoking the Virgin. His pity, muttered 'comsigo', to himself, because it cannot be spoken aloud, tells the reader that even inside the machinery there are people who know cruelty when they see it. Guimarães places the ordinary human response in the mouth of the lowest figure present, and lets it convict the highest. 'Pobre Isaura' is what everyone but Leôncio feels.

Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.

You are reading a page of the A Escrava Isaura — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.

The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.

Also on our shelves:

• Plato's Phaedrus — complete, ancient Greek
• Heraclitus, the Fragments — complete
• Dante's Inferno — Italian, canto I
• Dom Casmurro — Brazilian Portuguese