Esfinge explores the binaries of science and magic, body and spirit, male and female, attraction and horror, presenting its sexually ambiguous protagonist with sympathy. Ornately descriptive, this 1908 neo-gothic novel exemplifies the era's taste for the sensual and the fantastic. With echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it stands as a classic of Brazilian science fiction.
Henrique Maximiano Coelho Neto (1864-1934) was a Brazilian writer, professor, and politician based in Rio de Janeiro. He is best known for his portrayals of political upheaval and social change during Rio's belle epoque. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1932, Coelho Neto was one of Brazil's most prolific and widely read authors during the first decades of the twentieth century.