Franklin Távora
1842–1888
Biography
Franklin Távora was the name used by João Franklin da Silveira Távora, a Brazilian novelist, journalist, lawyer, politician and dramatist who lived from 1842 to 1888. He was born in Baturité in the northeastern province of Ceará, and his family moved to Pernambuco when he was a small child. He studied law at Recife and afterwards worked there as a lawyer, a civil servant and a provincial deputy, before moving to Rio de Janeiro in 1874.
He was a combative critic of the literature of his day and joined the arguments over what Brazilian writing should look like. He argued for a literature rooted in the North of Brazil, drawing on its folk legends and traditions, and set it against the writing of the south, which he thought was too full of foreign imitation. His quarrel with José de Alencar, carried on partly under the pen name Semprônio, was a notable literary dispute of the period. He also wrote plays.
The book on this site is O Cabeleira, published in 1876 and set in eighteenth-century Pernambuco. Its story concerns a bandit of the backlands, and the novel uses the region's landscape, speech and customs to tell it, which is why it is widely seen as an early work of Northeastern regionalist fiction. Távora was also honoured by the Brazilian Academy of Letters, which made him patron of its fourteenth chair.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
O Cabeleira
by Franklin Távora
O Cabeleira (English: Cabeleira) is an 1876 novel by Brazilian Romantic author Franklin Távora. Set in Pernambuco, during the 18th century, the novel tells the story of the cangaceiro José Gomes (a.k.a. "Cabeleira") and his father Joaquim, and their adventures at the sertão of…
Summary from Wikipedia: O Cabeleira (CC BY-SA 4.0)