This paper proposes some considerations on the use of a recent concept for an old metafictional device: from Cervantes to Machado de Assis, many writers have made use of metalepsis, which at times leads a character to complain about the narrative, in the case of Sancho Panza, or at others address the reader, as does Brás Cubas. The author proposes to analyze how this narrative transgression was exploited by Machado de Assis, who even admits his affiliation to a certain European style in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, whilst seeking to establish his own specificity. The aim is to show that metalepsis destabilizes the literary game and activates a reader who, in Machado, is no longer the same as the one summoned by the European form of the novel that had served as his model.