Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon

Ilheus in 1925 is a booming town with a record cacao crop and aspirations for progress, but the traditional ways prevail. When Colonel Mendonca discovers his wife in bed with a lover, he shoots and kills them both. Political contests, too, can be settled by gunshot... No one imagines that a bedraggled migrant worker who turns up in townleast of all Gabriela herselfwill be the agent of change. Nacib Saad has just lost the cook at his popular cafe and in desperation hires Gabriela. To his surprise she turns out to be a great beauty as well as a wonderful cook and an enchanting boon to his business. But what would people say if Nacib were to marry her? Lusty, satirical and full of intrigue,Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamonis a vastly entertaining panorama of small town Brazilian life.

Jorge Amado—novelist, journalist, lawyer—was born in 1912, the son of a cacao planter, in Ilheus, south of Salvador, the provincial capital of Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon. His first novel, Cacao, was published when he was nineteen. It was an impassioned plea for social justice for the workers on Bahian cacao plantations; and his novels of the thirties and forties would continue to dramatize class struggle. Not until the 1950s did he write his great literary comic novels—Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, and Dona Flor and her Two Husbands—which take aim at the full spectrum of society even as they pay ebullient tribute to the region of his birth. One of the most reknowned writers of the Latin American boom of the sixties, Amado has been translated into more than 35 languages. A highly successful film version of Dona Flor was produced in Brazil in 1976. He died in 2001.

FOREWORD

1

(4)

PART ONE, or A Brazilian from the Arabies

FIRST CHAPTER: THE LANGUOR OF OFENISIA,

5

(92)

Of the Sun and the Rain and a Small Miracle,

5

(5)

Of the Mixture of Past and Future in the Streets of Ilhéus,

10

(6)

Of the Notables at the Fish Market,

16

(6)

Of the Doctor's Claim to Noble but not Imperial Blood,

22

(6)

Of Filomena's Departure and Nacib's Predicament,

28

(6)

Of Law, Justice, Birth, and Nationality,

34

(5)

In Which Mundinho Falcão, an Important Character, Makes His Appearance Looking at Ilhéus Through Binoculars,

39

(6)

Of the Ship's Arrival,

45

(7)

Of the Dos Reis Sisters and Their Nativity Scene,

52

(7)

Of a Des Aerate Search,

59

(6)

Of a Political Boss in the Sun,

65

(8)

Of a Political Conspiracy,

73

(8)

On the Art of Gossiping,

81

(8)

Gabriela on the Way,

89

(8)

SECOND CHAPTER: THE LONELINESS OF GLORIA,

97

(74)

Of Temptation at the Window,

97

(5)

Of the Cruel Law,

102

(3)

Of Black Stockings,

105

(11)

Of the Law of Concubines,

116

(3)

Of a Charming Rascal,

119

(7)

Of Twilight,

126

(3)

Of the Intricate Ways of Love, or How Nacib Hired a Cook,

129

(5)

Of the Boat in the Forest,

134

(4)

Gabriela Asleep,

138

(9)

Of Food and Funerals,

147

(9)

A Parenthetical Story with a Moral,

156

(4)

The Banquet,

160

(5)

Nacib and Gabriela,

165

(6)

PART TWO, or Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon

THIRD CHAPTER: THE SECRET OF MALVINA,

171

(106)

Gabriela and a Flower,

171

(5)

Of a Welcome and Unwelcome Guest,

176

(8)

Of Nacib's Confusion,

184

(6)

Of Conversations and a Burning,

190

(10)

Of Newspapers and Hearts on Fire,

200

(3)

Gabriela and Arminda,

203

(5)

By Lamplight,

208

(4)

Of the Ball and the Englishwoman,

212

(9)

Of the Old Ways,

221

(5)

Of a Bird's Sad Song,

226

(4)

Gabriela and a Bird in a Cage,

230

(4)

Of High-Backed Chairs,

234

(9)

Of the Devil Loose in the Streets,

243

(6)

The Virgin of the Rocks,

249

(7)

Of Love Eternal, or a Door Ajar,

256

(5)

Gabriela's Song,

261

(3)

Of Flowers and Vases,

264

(9)

Of Dredges and a Bride,

273

(4)

FOURTH CHAPTER: THE MOONLIGHT OF GABRIELA,

277

(149)

Of an Inspired Bard and His Mundane Needs,

277

(8)

Of Mrs. Saad's Conformity and Nonconformity,

285

(13)

Of Candidates and Deep-Sea Divers,

298

(14)

The Man Hunt,

312

(10)

How Mrs. Saad Became Involved in Politics, in Violation of Her Husband's Traditional Neutrality, and of that Lady's Adventurous Night,

322

(11)

Of the Joys and Sorrows of Matrimony,

333

(5)

Of Gabriela's Sighs,

338

(4)

Of the Christmas Festivities,

342

(8)

Of the Shepherdess Gabriela, or Mrs. Saad. at the Ball,

350

(8)

From the Aristocratic Ofenisia to the Plebeian Gabriela, with Divers Events and Thefts of Money,

358

(7)

Of How Nacib Broke and Did Not Break the Unwritten Law, or How Mrs. Saad Became Gabriela Again,

365

(7)

Of Gabriela's Love,

372

(4)

Of Life's Surprises,

376

(5)

Of the Glass Snake,

381

(4)

Of the Tolling of the Bells,

385

(6)

Of the (Official) End of Gloria's Loneliness,

391

(8)

Of Profit, Loss and a Chef de Cuisine,

399

(7)

Of the Comrade in Battle,

406

(4)

Of a Distinguished Son of Ilhéus,

410

(5)

Gabriela Again,

415

(7)

Of the Swedish Ship and the Golden Mermaid,

422

(4)

POSTSCRIPT,

426

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Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials