Joaquim Felício dos Santos was a deputy in the Second Kingdom, a senator in the First Republic, and is the patron of chair no. 25 of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico de Minas Gerais [Historical and Geographical Institute of Minas Gerais], created in 1907. Regarding Memórias..., historian Américo Jacobina Lacombe says that "the book has managed, above all, to achieve a tone of high seriousness, combined with extreme good taste. It is both a piece of history and a literary jewel. 'It combines the rigour of history with the charm of romance', said Capistrano de Abreu of it" (A. J. Lacombe, Introdução ao estudo da história do Brasil [Introduction to the study of Brazilian history] 1973, pp. 186-187).

With regard to writing that mixes elements of fiction and history, Joaquim Felício dos Santos published in O Jequitinhonha, from 1862 and 1868 respectively, the pamphlets A história do Brasil escripta pelo Dr. Jeremias no anno de 2862 [The history of Brazil written by Dr. Jeremias in 2862] and Páginas da história do Brasil escripta no anno de 2000 [Pages of Brazilian history written in the year 2000] . The latter is now regarded as one of the first works of science fiction in Latin America (R. H. Ferreira, The emergence of Latin American science fiction [The emergence of Latin American science fiction], 2011). In both works, in order to criticise the present (Second Reign)—the author imagined a future in which Pedro II was viewed with much negative criticism, which is reminiscent of Émile Souvestre's formula in Le monde tel qu'il sera [O Que Há-de Ser o Mundo no Ano Três Mil] (1846). A reader of E. T. A. Hoffmann, he also wrote short stories, among them Os invisíveis [The Invisibles] (1861) , a kind of fantastic novella in which he recounts the turmoil of a citizen who suffers from what he believes are hauntings.

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