Plague-Beating Muse: The Life of Gregório de Matos

THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY OF THE GREAT BAROQUE POET. From the few reliable records about Gregório and the poems attributed to him, Ana Miranda constructs the arc of the poet's existence, a life whose twists and turns possess the force of an urgent fictional plot. We encounter an artist torn between the influence of the Catholic Church and the seduction of the popular world. We participate in his studies in Coimbra, where learning coexists with his first amorous adventures. We return with him to Bahia and follow his involvement in colonial politics. When his acerbic verses and political activities arouse the ire of the powerful, we see the poet deported to Angola, from where he would only return shortly before his death—moments recounted by the author in some of the most beautiful pages ever written about Gregório de Matos. A work in which the author combines historical rigor—the research is astonishing—and singular lyricism, Musa Praguejadora is already a landmark in biographical literature, capable of renewing our understanding of the artist who best portrayed a crucial period in the formation of Brazil.