Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma

Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma (published in English as The Patriot and The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma) is a novel by Pre-Modernist Brazilian writer Lima Barreto. The work was published under feuilleton form in 1911, from August to October in the Jornal do Commercio. The focus of the work is the nationalism in the early years of the First Brazilian Republic and criticism to the middle-class and the bureaucratic government. The work is comical in the beginning, transiting to harsh criticisms by the end. These critics demystify the figure of the president Floriano Peixoto (1891–1894), known as the Marechal de Ferro ("Iron Marshal"), and also of the Brazilian military.

The book is centered on Policarpo Quaresma, an ultra-nationalist bureaucrat of the Army. Quaresma is an enthusiast of Brazilian popular and indigenous culture, and has an innocent love for his country. Throughout the story, his heightened patriotism leads him always to disastrous situations: in the first part, he ends in an asylum; in the second, his agricultural enterprise fails due to the Brazilian pests and soil; and in the third and final part, he is arrested and executed under the orders of Floriano Peixoto, whom he admired.

Plot

Part One

The whole first part takes place in Rio de Janeiro. Quaresma is shown as a wise, but naïve nationalist who spent years of his life in private studies on Brazil. After 30 years, he finally found the right time to put in action his plan for improvement of Brazilian government and society.