The Maias is one of the most impressive European novels of the nineteenth century, fully comparable to the most inspired novels of the great Russian, French, Italian and English masters of prose fiction. A family chronicle of intense historical insight and narrative power, The Maias reveals the decadence of Portugal in its long decline that was to culminate in the Salazar Fascist regime of the twentieth century. More than that, The Maias is a vision also of the general European malaise that eventually brought on the two World Wars and their aftermaths.—Harold Bloom
José Maria de Eça de QueirósOne of the leading intellectuals of the “Generation of 1870,” José Maria de Eça de Queirós (1845–1900) wrote twenty books, founded literary reviews, and for most of his life also worked as a diplomat, in Havana, London, and Paris.
Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
Translated from the Portuguese by Ann Stevens
The Maias is a very satisfying juxtaposition of the beautiful, lyrical landscape and the vile actions of the family.—Edmund White
What does Eça’s Portugal feel like? It is dominated by hot sunny days, white trousers, dust, theater tickets and evening strolls in Sintra, roses in buttonholes and glimpses of gowned women getting in and out of coaches, gorgeous landscapes and trees and flowers, hale farmers and country maids, long conversations, cats and singing birds and orchards, pumpkins drying on a station roof, baked sweet rice, and cheese pastries.—James Guida, The New York Review of Books
“Elegantly poetic prose… Fans of Vargas Llosa and Saramago will find a kindred spirit in these pages.”—Kirkus
José Maria de Eça de Queirós, where have you been all my life?—Lorin Stein, The Paris Review
Eça de Queirós ought to be up there with Balzac, Dickens, and Tolstoy as one of the talismanic names of the nineteenth century.—London Observer
A writer of mesmerizing literary power. We should be grateful for such blessings.—Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World
Portugal’s greatest novelist.—Jose Saramago
He is far greater than my own dear master, Flaubert.—Zola
His excellent prose glides through real experience and private dream in a manner that is leading on toward the achievements of Proust.—V.S. Pritchett
The Maias is one of the most impressive European novels of the nineteenth century, fully comparable to the most inspired novels of the great Russian, French, Italian and English masters of prose fiction. A family chronicle of intense historical insight and narrative power, The Maias reveals the decadence of Portugal in its long decline that was to culminate in the Salazar Fascist regime of the twentieth century. More than that, The Maias is a vision also of the general European malaise that eventually brought on the two World Wars and their aftermaths.—Harold Bloom
A writer of genius.—Harold Bloom
