Texto original, tradução, adaptação ou imitação?

The newspaper article is about the conference proceedings at “Coloquio Vieira e Machado”, IFCH/IEL, Unicamp, Campinas, Brazil, from 26th to 28th August, 2008. It shows that the work by Machado de Assis’ “Queda que as mulheres tem para os tolos” (1861) is indeed a translation of the 1858 edition of Victor Henaux's essay “De l'amour des femmes pour les sots”, and neither an original text by Machado, nor an adaptation. The article carries out a survey of the most important critics who have discussed the matter of authorship of “Queda”. Secondly, it makes a comparison between Machado de Assis’ translation, as it was published both in “A Marmota” and in book form, and the original text by Victor Henaux. Finally, it proves that the changes made in the translation from the serial to the book were not mere typographic corrections; they demonstrate, that in fact, there was an improvement in the literary quality of the Brazilian translation, through Machado's efforts to bring his version closer to the French original.