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Loading... The Crime of Father Amaro (1875)| 762 | 21 | 29,733 | 
(4.02) | 90 | Eça de Queirós's novelThe Crime of Father Amaro is a lurid satire of clerical corruption in a town in Portugal (Leira) during the period before and after the 1871 Paris Commune. At the start, a priest physically explodes after a fish supper while guests at a birthday celebration are "wildly dancing a polka." Young Father Amaro (whose name means "bitter" in Portuguese) arrives in Leira and soon lusts after--and is lusted after by--budding Amelia, dewy-lipped, devout daughter of Sao Joaneira who has taken in Father Amaro as a lodger. What ensues is a secret love affair amidst a host of compelling minor characters: Canon Dias, glutton and Sao Joaneira's lover; Dona Maria da Assuncao, a wealthy widow with a roomful of religious images, agog at any hint of sex; Joao Eduardo, repressed atheist, free-thinker and suitor to Amelia; Father Brito, "the strongest and most stupid priest in the diocese;" the administrator of the municipal council who spies at a neighbor's wife through binoculars for hours every day. Eça's incisive critique flies like a shattering mirror, jabbing everything from the hypocrisy of a rich and powerful Church, to the provincialism of men and women in Portuguese society of the time, to the ineptness of politics or science as antidotes to the town's ills. What lurks within Eça's narrative is a religion of tolerance, wisdom, and equality nearly forgotten. Margaret Jull Costa has rendered an exquisite translation and provides an informative introduction to a story that truly spans all ages.… (more) |
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Foi no domingo de Páscoa que se soube em Leiria qu o pároco da Sé, José Miguéis, tinha morrido de madrugada com uma apoplexia.  It was Easter Sunday when it became known in Leiria that Jose Migueis, the Cathedral paroco, had died of apoplexy in the early hours of the morning. | |
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E o homem de Estado, os dois homens de religião, todos três em linha, junto às grades monumento, gozavam de cabeça alta esta certeza gloriosa da grandeza do seu país - ali ao pé daquele pedestal, sob o frio olhar de bronze do velho poeta, ereto e nobre, com os seus largos ombros de cavaleiro forte, a epopéia sobre o coração, a espada firme, cercado dos cronistas e dos poetas heróicas da antiga pátria - pátria para sempre passada, memória quase perdida! (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And the representative of the state, the two representatives of religion, all three in line, near the railings of the monument of Camoes, their heads raised, were filled with delight at the certainty of the glory and grandeur of their country; there at the foot of that pedestal under the cold bronze gaze of that old poet, erect and noble, with his fine strong horseman's shoulders, his epic over his heart, his sword held firm; surrounded by the Portugese historians and heroic poets of the past, a past gone forever, a memory almost lost. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.) | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English (1)
▾Book descriptions Eça de Queirós's novelThe Crime of Father Amaro is a lurid satire of clerical corruption in a town in Portugal (Leira) during the period before and after the 1871 Paris Commune. At the start, a priest physically explodes after a fish supper while guests at a birthday celebration are "wildly dancing a polka." Young Father Amaro (whose name means "bitter" in Portuguese) arrives in Leira and soon lusts after--and is lusted after by--budding Amelia, dewy-lipped, devout daughter of Sao Joaneira who has taken in Father Amaro as a lodger. What ensues is a secret love affair amidst a host of compelling minor characters: Canon Dias, glutton and Sao Joaneira's lover; Dona Maria da Assuncao, a wealthy widow with a roomful of religious images, agog at any hint of sex; Joao Eduardo, repressed atheist, free-thinker and suitor to Amelia; Father Brito, "the strongest and most stupid priest in the diocese;" the administrator of the municipal council who spies at a neighbor's wife through binoculars for hours every day. Eça's incisive critique flies like a shattering mirror, jabbing everything from the hypocrisy of a rich and powerful Church, to the provincialism of men and women in Portuguese society of the time, to the ineptness of politics or science as antidotes to the town's ills. What lurks within Eça's narrative is a religion of tolerance, wisdom, and equality nearly forgotten. Margaret Jull Costa has rendered an exquisite translation and provides an informative introduction to a story that truly spans all ages. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
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First published in 1875, The Crime of Father Amaro is an example of naturalism and realism, admired at the time by Zola who compares de Queiros favourably to Flaubert. De Queiros was a Liberal, opposed to the alliance of Church and the aristocracy that had led Portugal into decay.
Highly recommended. (