Life in the two chief cities of Brazil, Rio and São Paulo, takes its hue from the European capitals with which they are closely in touch, and from which they have derived mental food for many a generation. There is little about either of these fine cities, apart from the hot summers, the brilliant vegetation, their remarkable cleanliness and the Southern Cross overhead, to distinguish them from European cities; the clothes, amusements, buildings, and literature of the population is predominantly European, and there is not much to remind the visitor that he is in tropical South America. Rio is the “intellectual centre” of Brazil, and here are gathered the scores of good writers and poets, the artists and politicians, of the country; there is a profuse and characteristic literature. If the North American writer was correct in saying that “American literature is only a phase of English literature,” he would have been equally justified in saying that South American literature is a phase of French literature: yet in Brazil this would have less truth than in most parts of Latin America, because this country has so largely developed a series of writers who take native Brazilian life for their theme. There are long lists of Brazilian novels and poems which really reflect Brazil conditions in the very varied sections of the country; I know no other South American country whose literature is so emancipated, not from French style so much as from European subject matter. There is for instance the excellent work of the Visconde de Taunay, whose charming _Innocencia_ is a picture of interior conditions, and has been translated into almost every language, not excepting Japanese. The books of José de Alencar form another series of provincial pictures; Machado de Assis wrote a number of historical novels of great merit and interest; Coelho Netto, Aluisio de Azevedo, J. M. de Macedo, Xavier Marques, are among a score of names of writers who have left records of Brazilian life. If I were advising the study of a brief list of such novels, this would be a preliminary dozen:— _Innocencia_: by the Visconde de Taunay. Novel of _fazenda_ life in the interior—a delicate and touching story. _Os Sertões_: by Euclydes da Cunha. Powerful and vivid description of a page of national history, with a setting in the interior Brazilian uplands. _O Sertão_: by Coelho Netto. Scene also laid in the interior, with its simple customs. _O Mulato_: Aluisio de Azevedo. Deals with the position of the negro half-caste in Brazil. _O Gaucho_: José de Alencar. Life of the Brazilian cowboy. _Os Praieiros_: Xavier Marques. Life of the fisherfolk on islands near Bahia. _O Paroara_: Rodolpho Theophilo. Exodus of the Cearenses to the rubber forests of the Amazon. _Maria Dusá_: Lindolpho Rocha. Story of diamond hunters in the interior of Bahia.