retell. Thus, he describes how a certain knowledge presented in nature is captured and mysteriously understood by those naïve or lunatic figures – something which is further established in Campo Geral – and becomes comprehensible through a poetic treatment, while accompanying a scientific discovery of the sertão, a discovery that is incapable of revealing the true secrecies it uncovers. Grande Sertão: Veredas Rosa published his masterpiece, Grande Sertão: Veredas (literally, “Great Sertão: Tracks”, but translated as The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, to Guimarães Rosa's disapproval ) in the same year. His sole novel, the book began as yet another short-novel that he continuously expanded and is written in the form of a monologue by the jagunço Riobaldo, who details his life to an educated listener, whose identity, while unknown, defines him as an urban man. Riobaldo mixes the wars of the jagunços, which form the most straightforward part of the novel's plot, with his musings on life, the existence of God and the Devil – his greatest concern –, the nature of human feelings and the passage of time and memory, as well as several short anecdotes, often allegories illustrating a point raised in his narrative. The book can be seen, as it was by the author, as an adaptation of the faustian motif to the sertão. Riobaldo's account frequently returns to the central topic of his discourse, which he proclaims as the reason for his telling his life-story, as he expects, albeit ironically so, an answer from his listener: whether or not the Devil, and therefore evil, exists. Riobaldo is anguished by the idea he may have conducted a pact with the Devil, although he is uncertain, and he often dismisses the superstitions and beliefs of the "sertanejos" as stupidities. The interpretation of this supposed pact vary widely. Antonio Candido viewed it as an act of self-assurance, a symbolic deed by which Riobaldo can take hold of himself and of all his potential, something which allows him to become a powerful warrior who can extend vastly the power of his gang and avenge the betrayal of Joca Ramiro. In this, Candido insists, the pact is analogous to the initiation rites of the chivalric romances, through which the wan childe becomes a worthy knight. Willi Bolle, on the other hand, in a materialistic view of the book, which he considers to demonstrate the formation of the social order