As mil e uma transfigurações de rocambole: a personagem mais brilhante de Ponson du Terrail

Abstract

Ponson du Terrail was considered one of the leading French popular novelists the second half of the nineteenth century. Having circulated widely in serials and in book form his country of origin, he had his novels translated into Portuguese language and, that century, published by numerous Portuguese publishers. Part of Portuguese editions of his novels have been sent to Belém of Pará and became part of the Grêmio Literário Português of Para collection, reading room established in the capital of the province in 1867. Whereas one of the main author of blockbusters was Rocambole series, which are narrated the adventures of the eponymous character in 12 novels, this work aimed to describe the bibliographic point of view, the issues of this series contained in the collection of this institution to date. Therefore, we collected the editorial data of the copies of paraense reading room, which were compared with specimens of French editions available at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, so check the different editorial arrangements of the series, with regard to the organization the parts that compose it. Done this was undertaken the synthesis of the plot of the novels that compose the series as a whole, as well as the analysis of the narrative focused on the physical and psychological transformations of character, emphasizing the importance of disguise and recognition for the plot economy.