Esau and Jacob (Portuguese:Esaú e Jacó) is a Machado de Assis novel launched in 1904, four years before his death, by Editora Garnier, and, according to most critics, in full literary heyday, after writing, in 1899, Dom Casmurro, the most famous from his books. Esaú e Jacó stand out for consolidating a "smooth mastery" in the domain of the plot. Machado takes advantage of the occasional eccentricity in a text that leaves behind traces of picaresque and embarks on a realism that resumes the melancholy and lyricism that had begun in the first phase of his literary production. Highlighted are the characters very close to real life.