This article analyses Machado de Assis' fantastic short story "O Pais das Quimeras" going from the critics and chronicles where the author clearly shows us his both politic and artistic conceptions. Thus, without refusing the influences of the 19(th) fantastic literature in Machado's short story, we could verify that the young writer started using the fiction as a space to discuss important matters of his own prose, like Brazilian empire politics.4824969