The man who knew Javanese

Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (1881–1922) was one of the sharpest critics of Brazilian society during the early years of the Republic. Of mixed-race and relatively modest background, he personally experienced racial and social prejudice and remained largely outside the literary establishment of his time. He also worked as a clerk in the Ministry of War, acquiring firsthand knowledge of the bureaucracy that he so frequently mocked in his fiction. His writing repeatedly attacks social pretension, the worship of titles and academic credentials, political incompetence, and the privileges enjoyed by the Brazilian elite.