Bøger af Jose Maria Eca de Queiros

En El primo Basilio se narra el adulterio de Luisa, que traiciona a su esposo aprovechando la ausencia de este, cayendo gozosa en los brazos de un primo con quien había mantenido un noviazgo en su juventud. Historia de seducción y chantaje, es también retrato de las pequeñeces y miserias de una sociedad y de una clase social dominadas por el peso asfixiante de la mediocridad, e integra, junto con Madame Bovary, La Regenta, Ana Karenina y Effi Briest, la brillante constelación de lo que podría llamarse novelas de adulterio del siglo XIX.

Eça de Queirós, crítico perspicaz y extraordinario novelista, nos ofrece en una de sus obras más memorables un divertido y mordaz fresco de la sociedad portuguesa de su tiempo. Con hiriente mordacidad y agudo sentido del humor, nos advierte de los excesos del catolicismo fundamentalista y de la hipocresía que anida en el corazón del ser humano.

En El crimen del padre Amaro -novela en la que un párroco de provincias, amparado en la impunidad que le proporciona su condición de clérigo, se ve arrastrado por la pasión y el deseo a la degradación moral- el autor aborda el tema del celibato eclesiástico en una sociedad dominada por el oscurantismo y la omnipotencia de la Iglesia católica.

"The Relic tells the story of an orphaned young man, Teodorico Raposo, who is brought to Lisbon from a provincial town in Portugal to live with his aunt, a rigid, stern - and oftentimes - forbidding Catholic. Her devout circle of acquaintances is made up almost entirely of priests, many of whom are more concerned with appearances than spirituality, and seeking her and their approval, Teodorico is driven to attend Mass, say rosaries, and frequent churches, all the while awakening to sensuality, women, and the material life in conflict with "Auntie's" devotions, which are - inwardly - devoid of the charity preached by Christ. When Teodorico obtains a degree from the University of Coimbra, Auntie sends him to the Holy Land to search for a relic to cure her ills. He meets up with a learned German author and, after a sojourn to Egypt, the two make their way to the land trod by Jesus. It is there that Teodorico has the dream that takes up nearly one third of the novel: he witnesses the travails that lead to the Passion and Crucifixion, as well as the aftermath of Christ's death. Faced now with his mission, Teodorico embarks on a search. He soon comes upon an item, a "true" relic authenticated by his German friend, the sanctity of which will send Auntie to the heights of spiritual bliss, so much so that she will make him her heir. But when Teodorico returns to Lisbon with it, deception awaits her as the result of a simple mistake that had been made, and disinheritance awaits him as a result of Auntie's anger and vindictiveness"--

The great nineteenth-century Portuguese author Jose Maria Eca de Queiros has long been known for his novels. However, he also wrote short stories. Although there is no question that Eca owes the lion's share of his reputation to his long fiction, this collection shows us that we are reading the work of a writer in full control of both genres.