This charged tale of passion, greed and hypocrisy is set in late
19th-century Portugal. A handsome young Catholic priest is given
lodgings in the home of a formidable pair of sisters. Amelia, the
innocent and beautiful daughter of one of them, is ripe for love,
and although she is intended for a dependable clerk, the arrival of
the dashing and enigmatic man of the cloth brings an electric
atmosphere to the household and temptation to which she must
inevitably succumb. This is a 'human comedy' in the style of one of
the masters of the genre, Balzac, with more than a hint of that
other great French novelist, Flaubert, both of whom exerted their
influence over De Queiros. Like his better-known French
counterparts, he creates sometimes grotesque caricatures to lay
bare the evils of bourgeois society - the greed and hypocrisy of
the Catholic church, the malicious gossip and scheming of the petty
bourgeoisie. He, too, uses irony to great effect but this is
underpinned by an understanding of and sympathy with the frailty of
human nature which mean that the characters are anything but black
and white, surprising us to the very end. Whilst Amelia is not
quite Madame Bovary, the passion with which she lives her life and
the tragedy of her downfall ensure that she ranks with some of the
greatest of the 19th-century heroines. The character of her lover,
Father Amaro, is also deeply drawn as he develops from a youthful
and exuberant cleric, mindful of his vows to the Church but
subsumed by carnal desire, to a jealous and cruel bully, capable of
the worst of crimes. Well translated and keenly priced, this book
provides an excellent opportunity to become acquainted with a
little-known but highly impressive author. (Kirkus UK)
The explosive and highly controversial new film of The Crime of
Father Amaro is set in Mexico, in a material and religious culture
of this century not unlike the provincial Portugal where, as a
young man, de Queiros was despatched to train for the consular
service. The Crime of Father Amaro is set in Leiria, a provincial
cathedral city, in which the hypocrisies of churchmen were not far
to seek. Father Amaro, a young man like himself, with a priestly
rather than a diplomatic vocation, falls into a relationship with a
woman, and their tragic story unfolds with a harsh relentlessness.
The situation of women, tightly swaddled in conformities yet
fevered in their illusions of romance, much troubled the young
author in this and later books
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