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The Count of Abranhos by José Maria Eça de Queirós

2020; American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese; Volume: 103; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/hpn.2020.0123

2153-6414

Anna-Lisa Halling,

Literature, Culture, and Criticism

Reviewed by: The Count of Abranhos by José Maria Eça de Queirós Anna-Lisa Halling Eça de Queirós, José Maria. The Count of Abranhos. Translated by Robert M. Fedorchek. Catholic UP: 2020. Pp. 223. ISBN: 9780813233031. Robert Fedorchek's 2020 translation of José Maria Eça de Queirós's (1845–1900) posthumously published novel, O Conde d'Abranhos (1925), masterfully transmits the Portuguese author's biting satire of the upper class and politics in nineteenth-century Portugal. Although this novel had previously been translated into Spanish, French, German, and even Czech, this is the first time it appears in English. The translator opens his work with an excellent and accessible introduction. Quoting José Saramago's claim that Os Maias [The Maias] is "the greatest book by Portugal's greatest novelist," Fedorchek (professor emeritus of Fairfield University and a prolific translator of works in both Spanish and Portuguese) places Eça along with Honoré de Balzac and Benito Pérez Galdós in "a triumvirate of greats in the Romance-language literatures of Western Europe" (ix). After providing a brief overview of Eça's ten novels, Fedorchek lays out an abbreviated timeline of the author's life, highlighting his studies (University of Coimbra), important friendships (Ramalho Ortigão, Antero de Quental, Teófilo Braga, Jaime Batalha Reis, Oliveira Martins), time spent living abroad (Egypt, Cuba, England, France), literary influences (including Hugo, Baudelaire, Balzac, Flaubert, Zola, Poe, Goethe, Shakespeare, and Dickens), and writing (rejecting Romantic ideals and focused on contemporary life and national identity). Fedorchek's introduction also addresses important events that created the socio-political and literary context in which the author wrote, focusing on Portugal during a particularly [End Page 639] "turbulent" moment in its history (xiii)—the invasion of the country by Napoleon's armies (1807), forcing the king and his court to Brazil and thereby precipitating civil and political unrest and economic instability. This resulted in situating Portugal as a "cultural appendage of France" (xiii) and forced writers such as Eça to question the existence of a Portuguese national identity. Fedorchek then recognizes Eça's participation in Antero de Quental's Cenáculo (along with other members of the Generation of 1870) and links the author's "acrid response" to the prohibition of the lectures sponsored by the literary circle to the protagonist of The Count of Abranhos through which Eça criticizes "the evils inherent in a rigidly controlled society" (xv) by way of a cowardly, opportunistic character. Fedorchek additionally provides a concise summary and study of the novel itself. He begins by explicating its framing device—a "memoir-biography" written by Zagalo, private secretary of the Count (Alípio Severo Abranhos). The translator goes on to explain that "[w]hat becomes quickly apparent is that Eça lampoons both the biographee and the biographer" (xvi) as Zagalo justifies and rationalizes even the most odious of his employer's actions, such as fathering an illegitimate child with a young girl and then abandoning both her and his offspring to a life of abject poverty (all the while judging and condemning her desperate foray into prostitution with an ugly moral superiority). In spite of the Count's many missteps, poor choices, and self-interested actions, Zagalo repeatedly praises "the great man" (xvii) and holds him up as a superlative example of decency and decorum. Fedorchek points out that while the text principally criticizes the type of the "self-serving politician"—as well as that of the "universal sycophants" that surround him—and expresses "disillusionment with Portuguese mores and backwardness" (xvii), it also showcases Eça's extensive and impressive knowledge of other countries and literatures. Fedorchek's primer proves extremely helpful in orienting and preparing the reader, particularly one unfamiliar with Eça, to comprehend the text's "humor, irony, satire (at times gleefully biting), [and] pathos" (xviii). Additionally, the translator provides many invaluable footnotes to help explain unfamiliar Biblical, mythological, and geographical references. However, some allusions are left without clarification that might be helpful for students and other readers less familiar with the book's context. Even if those textual clues are out of reach, it would be useful...