"This collection of short short stories makes accessible to the English-speaking student of Portuguese some examples of the work of one of Brazil's foremost writers of all time, Carlos Drummond de Andrade. As teachers of Portuguese, we feel that Drummond's stories have a special value for students ... multifaceted portrayal of today's Brazil strikes us as an ideal introduction to that country's society and mores as seen within the wider context of the human condition in the latter half of the twentieth century. These forty stories were chosen from Drummond's 70 Historinhas: Antologia (Rio de Janeiro: Jośe Olympio, 1978) and are reproduced here in their original form, without simplification or omission. The stories and the accompanying exercises and annotations can profitably be used at the intermediate level and above; the student should have already completed an elementary grammar and should possess a basic vocabulary."--Preface.