In "Metropolis by the sea", author Ruy Castro (Brazil 1948), one of Brazil's most noted biographers, makes a delightful historical reconstitution of Rio's crazy years, intertwining political and cultural events to the trajectory of multiple and diverse characters -those remembered and those forgotten- who made and changed the city's history in the first three decades of the 20th century. "What happened in Rio between the carnival of 1919 and the Revolution of 1930? All. The scenery: A convulsing city portraited in the press, literature, popular music, opera, theater, fine arts, cinema, caricature, beach, science, architecture, football, women's rights fight, customs, sex and drugs. The characters: Adalgisa Nery ? Adhemar Gonzaga ? Agrippino Grieco ? Alvaro Moreyra ? Aracy Cortes ? Benjamin Costallat ? Bertha Lutz ? Bidu Sayão ? Carlos Chagas ? Carmen Miranda ? Cecilia Meirelles ? Di Cavalcanti ? Elsie Houston ? Eugenia Alvaro Moreyra ? Francisco Alves ? Gilka Machado ? Ismael Nery ? Ismael Silva ? J. Carlos ? Jayme Ovalle ? João do Rio ? Laurinda Santos Lôbo ? Lima Barreto ? Manuel Bandeira ? Mario Reis ? Murilo Mendes ? Orestes Barbosa ? Oswaldo Goeldi ? Patrocinio Filho ? Pixinguinha ? Procopio Ferreira ? Ronald de Carvalho ? Roquette-Pinto ? Sinhô ? Théo-Filho ? Vera Janacopoulous ? Villa-Lobos." (HKB Translation) --Verso Cover.