Noite na Taverna (in ) is a short story collection written by Brazilian Ultra-Romantic author Álvares de Azevedo under the pen name Job Stern. It was published posthumously, in 1855; three years after Azevedo's death. The book is structured as a frame story containing five tales (as well as a prologue and an epilogue, thus totaling seven chapters) told by a group of five men sheltering in a tavern. It is one of the most popular and influential works of Gothic fiction in Brazilian literature.
It is said that the book was largely inspired by Spanish author José Cadalso's 1790 work Noches lúgubres.
Plot
Chapter 1: "Uma Noite do Século" The first chapter of the book, "Uma Noite do Século" ("A Night of the Century"), introduces its setting – a tavern in an undisclosed location filled with prostitutes, drunkards and libertines. At a nearby table, influenced by the alcohol, a group of five friends – Solfieri, Bertram, Gennaro, Claudius Hermann and Johann – decide to share with each other certain events of their lives. The five tales have, in common, aspects such as unsuccessful love stories, cannibalism, murders, sexual violence, heavy drinking, among others.
Chapter 2: "Solfieri" When in Rome, on a rainy night, Solfieri sees a shadow crying over a window. He realizes it is a beautiful woman. She leaves the house and Solfieri decides to follow her, and they ultimately arrive at a nearby cemetery. There, the woman cries, kneeling before a headstone, as Solfieri falls asleep watching her from afar.
One year later, Solfieri, wandering the streets of Rome after taking part in an orgy, ends into a church inadvertently. He sees a coffin and, after listening to breathing noises inside, opens it, and sees the cemetery lady he met the year before inside it. After realizing that she is still alive (but in a cataleptic state), he carries her through the city. Arriving at his home, the woman dies two days later, of a very high fever. Solfieri buries her under the floorboards of his bedroom and pays a sculptor for a statuette built in the woman's likeness.
Chapter 3: "Bertram" Bertram tells the story of his ill-fated love for a Spanish woman from Cádiz, named Angela. Amidst their romance, Bertram's sick father, living in Denmark, calls for him. He goes, returning two years later; however, during the time he was away, Angela marries another man, having a son with him. Despite this, Bertram tries to maintain his affair with her, but Angela's husband finds out everything. Before her husband kills her, she kills him and her child, and flees with Bertram.
One day, without further explanations, she leaves him. Bertram sinks into despair as he tries to forget Angela; subdued by woe, he faints in the middle of a street and is run over by a chariot. The passengers of the chariot, an old man and his 18-year-old daughter, help him and take him to their mansion so he can recover. Bertram gets in love with the lady and they flee together, but he ultimately gets bored with her and sells the lady to a pirate in a card game. Later, he would learn that the girl poisoned the pirate and committed suicide by throwing herself in the sea.
Having moved to Italy, Bertram decides to kill himself there, but when he is about to do it, he is saved by a sailor whom he kills unintentionally. Bertram spends some time in the sailor's ship (a corvette), where he gets in love with the captain's wife, being requited.
In the midst of this affair, the ship is attacked by pirates and sinks, but not without making the other one sink too. The captain, his wife, Bertram and two other unnamed sailors are able to save themselves in a raft. Some time later, with no water or food, the two unnamed sailors being washed out by the sea, the three lot in order to discover who will be killed and serve as food for the others. The chosen one is the captain, but he does not accept his fate and fights for his life. He loses the fight however, and Bertram and the woman are obligated to eat him because of the lack of food, maintaining themselves for two days.
Arriving at a beach, both already weakened by hunger, the woman asks Bertram for a last moment of love before her death. Afraid of dying, Bertram strangles her and lives at the beach in complete solitude until he is found by a British brig that rescues him.