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| History of Portuguese Literature | Origins of Portuguese Literature | The Portuguese Language | Oral Literature | Fiction | Lyricism |
| Travel Literature | Cantigas de amigo | Historiography | Doctrinal Prose | ||
Aquilino
Ribeiro
(1885-1963)
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One
of the most productive novelists from the first half of this century. He began
writing in 1913 with the collection of short stories Jardim
das Tormentas and the novel A Via
Sinuosa, 1918, maintaining the high level of literary quality to be found in
most of his texts, published with regularity and enjoying great success amongst
both public and critics.
Andam
Faunos pelos Bosques, 1926, A
Casa Grande de Romarigães, 1957, O
Malhadinhas and Quando os Lobos Uivam,
1958, are representative of constant trends in his fiction: a regionalism that
shows a fondness for the countryside and its people, without losing any of the
universality of its characters and descriptions; a tender and complacent irony
in the face of common human vices; a violent criticism of political oppression
and ideological fanaticism, a lively attentiveness to the heartbeat of the
countryside, as well as to the sensual vibration of the body in the human being.
The sturdy acorn
had remained there very still, very comfortably sprawled out by virtue of its
own weight, buried like a cannon-ball after cars and carts had passed over it.
What was there to do except stretch out and sleep?! He slept for an hour or a
whole life, who knows?! A baby rabbit suddenly appeared from the back of beyond,
pawed the ground, dug a hole, relieved itself, and the acorn remained underneath,
suffocating and unable to breathe, buried in the darkness. Was this the very end?
A quick movement of the animal’s haunches and out it came like an arrow. Was
it light or life? Was it a fountain, or rather a birdsong, of running water, a
pod popping open with the sunshine (... )? It was all of this, red in the
flameless fire that was raging in its haunches, an expression that ended up
radiating from the very mystery of its being.
From the pine-nut,
which a sudden gust of wind had torn from the mother-cone, and from the acorn,
which the bird had dropped onto the ground, when the act was repeated a thousand
times, the forest was born.
A Casa Grande de Romarigães (excerpt)
© Instituto Camões, 2001
