Alexandre Herculano

Precisa ter instalado o JavaAplet

History of Portuguese Literature	Origins of Portuguese Literature	The Portuguese Language	Oral Literature	Fiction	Lyricism
Travel Literature	Cantigas de amigo	Historiography	Doctrinal Prose	Theatre

Alexandre Herculano
(1810-1877)

Both a poet (Tristezas do Desterro, 1838) and a novelist (Eurico, o Presbítero, 1844), he was inflamed with the passion of historical reconstruction and succeeded in elevating the study of history to a genuine science.

He was one of the great writers of the Romantic generation, developing the theme of man’s incompatibility with his social environment and experiencing the ethical dimension of the writer faced with the incomprehensibility of the world.

Ah, what are you, existence?! A nightmare,

A bad dream, from which one awakes in darkness,

In a grave full of corpses, in the midst

Of the only inheritance that belongs to man,

A shroud and perpetual oblivion.

(…)

And my nostalgia for my homeland, in a sad dream,

Immobile, weaves for me the night from life itself

Tristezas do Desterro, an excerpt