Memoirs of a Police Sergeant (Portuguese: Memórias de um sargento de milícias) is a novel written by the Brazilian author Manuel Antônio de Almeida. It was first published in 1852. It tells the colorful story of a problem child that grows up into an immoral, reckless young man until he is arrested by the police and given the chance of becoming an officer instead of serving his sentence. The book is full of picturesque descriptions of Rio de Janeiro's life in the early 19th century, including popular feasts and holidays, and is considered, besides a literary masterpiece, an important source of Brazilian history.
A recent edition in Portuguese (New York, NY: Luso-Brazilian Books, 2005) has the ISBN 0-85051-504-1. A recent English edition titled Memoirs of a militia sergeant: a novel (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) has the ISBN 0-19-511549-X.
Famous quotes containing the words memoirs, police and/or sergeant:
“There are people who can write their memoirs with a reasonable amount of honesty, and there are people who simply cannot take themselves seriously enough. I think I might be the first to admit that the sort of reticence which prevents a man from exploiting his own personality is really an inverted sort of egotism.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“Civil servants and priests, soldiers and ballet-dancers, schoolmasters and police constables, Greek museums and Gothic steeples, civil list and services list—the common seed within which all these fabulous beings slumber in embryo is taxation.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“We don’t murder, we kill.... You don’t murder animals, you kill them.”
—Samuel Fuller, U.S. screenwriter. Sergeant (Lee Marvin)