Eca de Queiroz, one of Portugal’s greatest writers, wrote his greatest works of literature while living in England. While Portuguese Consul in Bristol from 1879 to 1888, ostensively fulfilling his less than demanding role as a foreign diplomat, he was actually writing his masterpiece ‘Os Mais’ (‘The Maias’).
Perhaps there is something about distance, of looking back at your homeland from afar, that brings it into sharper focus.
Eca was part of the ‘generation of 1870’ – a kind of Portuguese Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals, artists and writers, impatient for ‘the new Portugal.’ Queiroz ruthlessly critiqued his birthplace in the manner of Dickens (to use another English comparison).
Yet, he also turned his satirical eye to his temporary home. In his ‘Letters from England’, he reveals a rather love / hate relationship, that is often very funny. He complains about everything – from the weather to Christmas pudding (‘a heavy, indigestible concoction’).
Here is his first impression of Newcastle:
‘imagine a black brick city, half-drowned in mud, with a thick atmosphere of smoke, penetrated by a damp cold…’
Still, he reasons:
‘it is an excellent place in which to study…there is nothing to distract me – neither nature, society, theatres, or women.’
Staying in England for 15 years, via homes in Newcastle, Bristol and London, nothing escaped his penetrating wit – from our love of cheap romantic novels to our eccentricities. He noted the poet Tennyson’s method of avoiding fans of his work by covering his face with a handkerchief!
In conclusion, he wrote:
‘I detest England, but this does not stop me from declaring that as a thinking nation, she is probably the foremost.’
I recently took a tour of the House Museum of Eca de Queiroz in Tormes, Portugal. This video shows the beauty of its privileged location in the mountains of the Douro. The music also happens to be one of my favourite songs by the famous Portuguese singer Rui Veloso. Translated, the beautiful sentiment of the song states: ‘I have all the time in the world for you’ – something I feel about Eca’s wonderful work.
