Machado's Dom Casmurro = contemporary or antiquated?

It's not a narrative method that would suit all subjects, but J. Machado de Assis makes great use of a narration in fragments in his 1900 novel, Dom Casmurro, in which a older narrator, probably closely modeled on Machado himself, who was about 60 when this was published, reflects on the key moments and turning points in his youth, in particular how he fell in love w/ the girl next door, which was a problem because he mother had pledged to God from her son's birth that he would become a priest. Our deep past often, I think, rises to us in fragments, so the fragmented narration - about 150 segments most of them 2 pages or shorter - works well, the memories arising to the narrator much as the past does for those who reflect on their early life. The family history is quite old-fashioned today, and was in 1900 (looking back to the 1830s or so, when Brazil was actually an empire - who knew?), as it's hard to fathom a life so constricted that a teenage boy would feel obligated to follow through on his mother's pledge and in which the teenager, who was like a playmate with the girl next door, wouldn't even think about them as a couple until all of a sudden he hears of neighborhood rumors that the 2 of them were in love - the idea hits him like a storm. He's extremely sheltered and naive. He enlists the aid of a family hanger-on to approach his mother and plead w/ her to let her son follow another course; he does so because he proposes that the young man go on an educational tour of Europe - something he'd really like to do, as the escort and guide, but in a way that misses the whole point - keeping the young man away from his beloved for a year or maybe much more. She seems attractive and spirited, but the family sees this as a bad match, as her father was a failure in his government service and seems to have a gambling problem as well. So in effect it's novel of customs that have been eclipsed for more than a century, but of passions and relationships that seem vivid and contemporary - more than a century after the original publication (in Portuguese) of the novel.