The Relic: A Novel: 07 (Adamastor) - Softcover

Eça De Queirós, José Maria De

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933227354 ISBN 13: 9781933227351

Publisher: Tagus Press at UMass Dartmouth, 2012

Synopsis

The Relic is an irreverent fictional autobiography narrating the picaresque adventures of Teodorico, a Portuguese playboy determined to be the sole heir of his absurdly pious, sexually repressed, and tyrannical Auntie. Sent to the Holy Land, he returns with what he presumes is the "relic of relics" in hopes of persuading Auntie to bequeath her vast fortune to him. While in Jerusalem, Teodorico has a vision in which he witnesses Christ's trial and crucifixion and the founding of Christianity-with a twist.

About this title

Review:

Aubrey Bell has put Eça de Queirós's Portuguese into English so wisely and so seamlessly that as we read along in the adoptive tongue we not only hear Eça's voice coming through, but at times can sense the glint of his monocle. The Relic is here preserved with all its subtle wit and wisdom in a masterful rendition.

--Gregory Rabassa

The Relic is the most incongruent, most extravagant, most inconceivable pandemonium that can be imagined. From farce to epic; from uproarious laughter to the most authentic pathos; from the picaresque adventure to the most sublime episodes; from the sophomoric joke to the most nobly serene painting of classical antiquity; from the most outrageous mockery to austere history; from the grotesque to the monumental; from blasphemy to hymn, this book has it all.

--J. P. de Oliveira Martins, historian and contemporary of Eça

Within a few pages he has us straining to keep with the modernity of his thought, we are instantly impressed by the purity and imagery of his style, respectful before his restraint and economy of word and incident, above all, fascinated by the rapier-like thrust of his satire. And -- yes -- convulsed by his hilarious comedy.

--New York Times Book Review

About the Author:

JOSÉ MARIA DE EÇA DE QUEIRÓS (1845--1900), Portugal's foremost novelist of the nineteenth century, is the author of The Maias and The Correspondence of Fradique Mendes.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tagus Press at UMass Dartmouth
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1933227354
• ISBN 13: 9781933227351
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248