Eça de Queirós
(1845-1900)

He is considered to be the great novelist of Portuguese literature, because of the wide variety of his different themes (dominated by his criticism of contemporary society and the excesses of sensual love, e.g. O Crime do Padre Amaro, 1875, and O Primo Basílio, 1878), because of his narrative capacity (shown in the realistic and decadent organic structure of Os Maias, 1888), and because of the rigour and creativity of his impressionistic style (culminating in the animistic prose of A Cidade e as Serras, 1901).

Lisbon. "A Brasileira" Café

Everywhere the water murmured, the water fertilised... Agile rivulets fled, laughing with the pebbles; abundant streams leapt hastily and noisily from stone to stone; straight glittering threads like silver strings vibrated and sparkled from the heights of the gorges; and many fountains, placed at the side of footpaths, poured beneficently from their spouts, waiting for men and cattle...

 

                                                                                               A Cidade e as Serras

© Instituto Camões, 2001