Two friends are kidnapped by several masked men, who, to judge by their manners and their accent are men of the best society. One of the friends is a doctor, and the masked men say that they need him to assist a noblewoman, who is about to give birth. When they reach the house, they find no such noblewoman, only a dead man. Another man, known only as A.M.C., bursts in at this point and declares that the man died of opium poisoning. The doctor writes a letter to a newspaper editor, setting out the facts as he knows them. These facts are rebutted first by a friend of A.M.C. and then by the first masked man, who explains the whole story... Eca de Queiroz wrote this spoof 'mystery' with his friend Ramalho Ortigao, publishing it in the form of a series of anonymous letters in the Diario de Noticias between 24 July and 27 September 1870. Many readers believed the letters to be genuine. As the book progresses, one sees Eca gradually getting into his stride as a novelist, equally at home with humour and with human drama. Recently turned into a major Portuguese feature film it will delight avid Eca fans and lovers of mysteries."

Esta obra (libro de tapa dura) forma parte de la linea TREDITION CLASSICS en la cual la editorial tredition de Hamburgo esta publicando obras de los ultimos dos milenios que ya estan descatalogadas y solo pueden encontrarse en anticuarios. Esta linea quiere preservar la literatura y proteger la cultura para que miles de libros no se pierdan en el olvido. Con la linea TREDITION CLASSICS nos hemos propuesto reeditar miles de escritores clasicos de la literatura mundial en diversos idiomas para hacerles disponibles universalmente.

Jose Maria Eca de Queiros (1845-1900) was a Portuguese author in the realist style, whose work has been translated into 20 languages. The Count of Abranhos was published posthumously, and this is the first time it has been translated into English. Alipio Severo Abranhos, born to poor parents in a small town in the north of Portugal, goes off to spend his boyhood and adolescence with an aunt whose material well-being constitutes, for him, the lap of luxury. And he likes and becomes accustomed to luxury. As he follows a course of study for his bacharel at the University of Coimbra, certain negative character traits come to the fore, and upon completion of his degree he leaves behind a pregnant maid to take up residence in Lisbon. In the capital, he calculates-as a young man with neither position, nor fortune, nor social standing-how to get ahead in life. And the path is through marriage to a young woman of social status and promise of a sizable dowry, both of which can facilitate his rise in politics and government. Alipio's weapons, his means, are various modes of hypocrisy-social hypocrisy, religious hypocrisy, filial hypocrisy, and political hypocrisy, with dishonesty, cowardice, and a farcical duel thrown in for good measure. Eca, like all accomplished novelists, does not tell us what Alipio becomes, rather he lets us see what he becomes, for with his unerring sense of satire, of character portrayal, and plot movement he lets the Count of Abranhos, with his steps and missteps, inform us himself of what he becomes. And with his actions, Alipio Severo Abranhos emerges as the personification, the very epitome, of the grim state of politics in nineteenth-century Portugal, a state engendered by the dogged pursuit of power. And through the obsequious eyes of Alipio's biographer and the sycophantic hangers-on who wish to glory in his orbit, readers have a clear picture of the "great" man-a type who exhibits universal characteristics not confined to Eca de Queiros's native country, nor to his time.

Diese Hardcover-Ausgabe ist Teil der TREDITION CLASSICS. Der Verlag tredition aus Hamburg veroffentlicht in der Buchreihe TREDITION CLASSICS Werke aus mehr als zwei Jahrtausenden. Diese waren zu einem Grossteil vergriffen oder nur noch antiquarisch erhaltlich. Mit TREDITION CLASSICS verfolgt tredition das Ziel, tausende Klassiker der Weltliteratur verschiedener Sprachen wieder als gedruckte Bucher zu verlegen - und das weltweit Die Buchreihe dient zur Bewahrung der Literatur und Forderung der Kultur. Sie tragt so dazu bei, dass viele tausend Werke nicht in Vergessenheit geraten

The great nineteenth-century Portuguese author Jose Maria Eca de Queiros (1845-1900) has long been known for his novels, especially The Crime of Father Amaro (1880) and The Maias (1888). However, he also wrote short stories, and a number of them, having stood the test of time, are now regarded as masterpieces. Although there is no question that Eca owes the lion's share of his reputation to his long fiction, the tales in this collection tell us that we are reading the work of a writer in full control of both genres. The eleven selections range widely in theme and length and, except for "The Catastrophe"(which was published posthumously), are arranged in order of the year of publication. "The Falling Snow" and "Master Devil" contain elements of both the fantastic and realistic, a number of which call to mind Edgar Allan Poe, a writer whom Eca read and greatly admired. The power of love becomes the obsession of love in "The Peculiarities of a Blonde Girl" and "Jose Matias," two of the stories that stand at the pinnacle of Eca's reputation as a short story writer. "Civilization" will speak to nostalgia for a rustic life, while "Perfection" searches, through Ulysses and a special goddess, into a different kind of life, one without blemish. Other tales explore the nature of sacrifice ("The Wet Nurse"), greed and betrayal ("The Treasure"), jealousy and vengeance ("The Dead Man"), and faith in a young rabbi named Jesus ("The Gentle Miracle"). No one knows why Eca withheld publication of "The Catastrophe," but this powerful story engages us with its naked intensity, its aroused passion, and its blunt honesty, for it amounts to a ringing endorsement of the exalted meaning of patriotism.

Esta obra forma parte de la linea TREDITION CLASSICS en la cual la editorial tredition de Hamburgo esta publicando obras de los ultimos dos milenios que ya estan descatalogadas y solo pueden encontrarse en anticuarios. Esta linea quiere preservar la literatura y proteger la cultura para que miles de libros no se pierdan en el olvido. Con la linea TREDITION CLASSICS nos hemos propuesto reeditar miles de escritores clasicos de la literatura mundial en diversos idiomas para hacerles disponibles universalmente.

Dieses Werk ist Teil der Buchreihe TREDITION CLASSICS. Der Verlag tredition aus Hamburg veroffentlicht in der Buchreihe TREDITION CLASSICS Werke aus mehr als zwei Jahrtausenden. Diese waren zu einem Grossteil vergriffen oder nur noch antiquarisch erhaltlich. Mit der Buchreihe TREDITION CLASSICS verfolgt tredition das Ziel, tausende Klassiker der Weltliteratur verschiedener Sprachen wieder als gedruckte Bucher zu verlegen - und das weltweit Die Buchreihe dient zur Bewahrung der Literatur und Forderung der Kultur. Sie tragt so dazu bei, dass viele tausend Werke nicht in Vergessenheit geraten