Day 6

This bloc of chapters and the one that follows may be the most overtly political sections of PM, in the sense that M pulls back the curtain on ambition and the maneuverings it inspires, then and now. Is Lobo Neves that much different from today’s pols?

BC’s friend Quincas Borba first shows up in XIII and returns briefly in LIX. But from XCI on, as BC endures romantic and political disappointment, Borba and his goofy philosophy humanitism loom ever larger in BC’s life. A sign of his desperation?

For someone given to such high-flown theorizing, BC sure spends a lot of time down in the muck and mire of physicality. Just look at all those chapters with body parts as titles: the nose, eyes and ears, legs, and now, in XCVII, lips and forehead.