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Perhaps due to its negative reception by prominent scholars, Helena (1876) remains one of the least studied and appreciated novels by J. M. Machado de Assis. Roberto Schwarz, one of the most influential commentators on Machado, has dismissed the novel as a poorly written effort, even for the author's so-called first phase, that attempts to salvage the paternalistic structure of Brazilian society by appeal to Christian morality-a project the critic calls ideologically insipid (Schwarz, Ao vencedor as batatas 90). Taking somewhat more interest in the narrative, Regina Zilberman joins Schwarz in condemning the book's ideology as unacceptably "conformista, conservadora e moralista" (Zilberman 98). Even critics who defend the novel against such severe attacks and find value in its realism (Chalhoub 18), style and psychological depth (Fitz 49), or intertextual richness (Durand 2526), typically concede that Helena is no masterpiece. I will argue here for a new reading of the novel, one that may allow us to take greater interest in the text and to rethink its place among Machado's writings, based on a recent innovation in the theory of fictional narrative. Joshua Landy has argued that certain works of fiction are best understood as formative, in the sense that they offer opportunities for (suitably disposed) readers to engage in specific kinds of intellectual or mental training. Following Landy's theory of formative fictions, I suggest that Helena be read as a training text for skeptical readers: readers who examine critically the actions and pronouncements of fictional characters as well as narrators; who scrutinize claims, arguments, and evidence presented within narrative; and who will ultimately suspend judgment about dubious possibilities raised by fictional discourse.
