Books
Eça de Queirós
Eça de Queirós was a novelist and short-story writer who introduced naturalism and realism to Portuguese literature in the 19th-century. He is considered the greatest Portuguese novelist. His work is characterized by ironic tone and social criticism.
Eça de Queirós was born in Póvoa de Varzim as the son of a prominent magistrate. He studied law at the University of Coimbra and after graduation his father helped him make a start in legal profession. Eça de Queirós spent most of his life in the consular service. He worked in the 1870s and 1880s in diplomatic missions in Havanna and London. In 1888 he was appointed consul in Paris, where he served until his death.
In 1871 Eça de Queirós started to publish with Ramalho Origão a monthly journal, As Farpas, which satirized Portuguese life. During these years Eça de Queirós became closely associated with the Generation of '70. The group was committed to social and artistic reforms and wanted to replace the conventional literary traditions with literature dealing with the contemporary issues. Eça de Queirós's best known work, O Crime do Padre Amaro (1875), was a love story of a priest and the destructive effects of celibacy. It was based on his experiences as a municipal official in Leiria and satirized clerical corruption. O Primo Basilio (1878) was a Flaubertian study of a middle-class Lisbon family and focused on adultery. Os Maias (1880) depicted upper-class life and the degeneration of a family through incestuous relationships.
Eça de Queirós's naturalism and attacks on religious hypocrisy arose much controversy, and he was called the "Portuguese Zola." In O Mandarim (1880) Eça de Queirós moved from naturalism toward a new aesthetic form and gave more space to the interaction between the reality and the free flight of imagination. A Relíquia (1887) was a picaresque story of cupidity and religious hypocrisy.
Eça de Queirós died of tuberculosis in Paris on August 16, 1900.
For more information, please click the following sources.
http://www.terravista.pt/Nazare/1107/frame.htm
http://www.releituras.com/equeiroz_menu.asp
http://www.portugal.com./shop/ecadequeiroz2.asp
http://www.bartleby.com/65/qu/Queiroz.html
