Eça de Queirôs, Jose Maria

(1845-1900)

   Nineteenth-century Portugal's greatest novelist and essayist, the author of modern classics in the form of satirical novels that are still popular and considered to be relevant to contemporary concerns in Portugal. Next to Luís de Camões and Fernando Pessoa, Eça de Queirós is the most studied, discussed, and written about Portuguese writer in modern times. He was a student at Coimbra University and a distinguished member of the so-called Generation of 1870, which challenged both the academic establishment and the governing elite of its day. This brilliant, prolific novelist and essayist spent much of his post-university life abroad in Portugal's foreign and consular service. His largely realist novels portrayed Portuguese society of 1870-1900 with wit, satire, humor, and wisdom. He died in Paris in 1900, leaving behind a large body of novels and essays, published and unpublished.

   See also Literature.