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Eca's English Letters
Paperback
Main Details
| Title |
Eca's English Letters
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| Authors and Contributors |
By (author) Eca de Queiros
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Translated by Aiken Stevens
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Translated by Ann Stevens
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| Series | From the Portuguese S. |
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| Physical Properties |
| Format:Paperback | | Pages:220 | | Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 133 |
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| ISBN/Barcode |
9781857545005
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| Classifications | Dewey:869.83 |
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| Audience | |
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| Illustrations |
ports.
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Publishing Details |
| Publisher |
Carcanet Press Ltd
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| Imprint |
Carcanet Press Ltd
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| Publication Date |
26 October 2000 |
| Publication Country |
United Kingdom
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Description
England in the 1880s: the aristocracy stoically endures the tedium of country-bound weeks in winter, when fashion forbids their showing themselves in London. Lord Beaconsfield's death is mourned - and a national myth is buried. The Times remains the watchdog of the English conscience. Abroad, John Bull is sweetly reasonable; Irish rebels must not be allowed to incommode English landlords; Egyptian rebels must by taught to respect their established rulers (and of course, British interests must be safeguarded). Meanwhile, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, an obscure young Portuguese consul, Eca de Queiros, writes regular letters to his Brazilian readers, giving a dry, gently amused, if not wholly impartial, account of these and other English activities. If his facts are sometimes a shade garbled, ad his irony occasionally cruel, his descriptions of peole, places and events are always lively and vigorous. He shows a propoensity for blowing raspberries at our more venerable institutions - the Times he finds incessently amusing - but, read as a corrective to the British propoganda of the period, "Letter from England" provide a vivid glimpse of late-Victorian Britain as an eminently civilized European would have seen it.
ReviewsKirkus Review US:The centenary of the death of the Portuguese novelist Eca de Queiros (1845-1900) has been marked by the translation of many of his major works. This book collects the letters that he wrote for newspaper audiences in Portugal and Brazil and to the Portuguese foreign minister in the years 1874-1888, when he was Portuguese consul in Newcastle and Bristol. As Jonathan Keates writes in his introduction, at the time these letters were written, Britain was at the height of its imperial belligerence, while Portugal's empire was in decline. Eca de Queiros arrived in England already an admirer of English culture and literature. However, the relegation of his country to the minor league and his background as a writer in the naturalistic tradition of Flaubert and Zola meant that his reports became those of an ambivalent outsider who had a love/hate relationship with the English. Eca observes life in England with a highly acerbic eye. His most scathing satire is reserved for the upper classes, whom he follows throughout 'the season' and whose hypocrisies and snobberies he treats witheringly. He reports back on political events such as the struggles between the bosses and the miners, religion and the illogicalities of the judiciary; on current ideas; peculiar and absurd news items; the latest fashionable pursuits, books, plays and opera's; the changing status of women; seasonal customs, society scandals and the misfortunes of Mr Pongo the zoo gorilla! This is not necessarily something to read right through. Eca's tone can waver alarmingly between the trenchant, the analytical and the lyrical and the subject matter often takes unexpected directions. It works better as a book to dip into for an entertaining, vinegary antidote to picturesque and over-sugared accounts of Victorian England. (Kirkus UK)
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