Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias

A novel of manners written at the height of Brazil's romantic period, Memrias de um Sargento de Milcias broke the customs of the genre, with characters doing both good and bad. Leonardo, an extremely likeable loafer and ne'er-do-well, is drafted into the local militia after an affair with a mulatto woman goes wrong. But when Leonardo gets in trouble with the Major of the militia, the women in his life convince the Major to pardon him and promote him to Sargeant.