Truncar de aires: A flor eterna

This text aims to analyze the connections between Esau and Jacob and Counselor Ayres' Memorial, which are inseparable from those between Machado de Assis, the Editor and Counselor Ayres. In order to understand these ties, it is fundamental to distinguish notions like book, novel and narrative. The book is the object that contains the text. The novel is the fiction that presents the narrative. In both of the novels it is possible to associate a different name to each of these notions. Machado is the book's author. But it is the Editor who inaugurates the fiction in the Foreword of each of these novels. He establishes the protagonist, Counselor Ayres, as the purported and posthumous author of these narratives. At the same time, however, he introduces them in a reformulated and truncated way at his own discretion.