[IteseFrusty]

One night at the Opera, young V?tor da Silva sees a Portuguese widow recently arrived from Paris. Her name is Genoveva. Their attraction is mutual and they challenge social mores to live together.

The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers has a complicated history. It was E?a de Queiroz? first attempt at writing The Maias and shares many similarities with his masterpiece. Whoever reads both novels will easily notice the resemblances between characters, plotlines and situations. The novel also remained unpublished during E?a?s lifetime and scholars only discovered it after nearly a century. This has damaged its popularity.

However it is not a minor work. It is a typical E?a novel. The writing is beyond reproach. As always, the author carefully builds his sentences and chooses the right words in the right measure. The reader can?t help realize E?a spent hours editing every sentence to perfection.

The author?s other qualities are present too: his wit and humor; his ability to dissect and ridicule absurd trends and social behaviors; his exposure of society?s hypocrisies; his eye for human relationships.

Like in almost all novels I?ve read by E?a, the story revolved around a man falling in love for a woman and doing everything possible, demeaning himself to limit, to get her attention and affection. E?a has been accused of not writing great female characters; I think that?s a valid criticism: his women are little more than beautiful temptresses. But his work is not a monument to male qualities either. The 19th century was a male-centric world and E?a goes after those who held the power to reveal the laziness, idiocy and carelessness in their lives.

I found the cast unforgettable: there?s D?maso, a loathsome, cowardly little man who keeps Genevova to parade her around as his mistress, as a symbol of luxury, ignorant to the fact she?s sucking him dry of all his money. Then we have V?tor, E?a?s typical young man, a horny dilettante who turns his life upside-down for love.

And finally my favorite, Camilo Cerr?o, a painter commissioned to draw Genoveva?s portrait. He?s the type of character I love to see in E?a?s books because he writes them so well: he is a pretentious artist, full of talk but little action. He goes on and on about art history and styles and technique, but he never paints anything. He believes artists are above Kings and wishes things were like in the time aristocracy supported art, when artists were worshipped and commissioned to create great works. He refuses to go to the clients? houses, like a common hired hand; he believes clients should go to his studio, his temple of art. And he knows that if only someone gave him a chance, he?d revolutionize art in Portugal. I could easily read a novel just about him.

The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers is one of the best novels I?ve read in a while. It never drags and it?s so hilarious the reader will have it finished before realizing it.

[Drugmachine]

I loved The Maias... Heteronym, do you know if this is englished? Never heard of it . Excellent review btw. I found the accusation about Eca's female characters true in that novel..



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[IteseFrusty]

Dedalus Books has published an English translation, yes. If you've read The Maias you'll probably enjoy this novel too. It's quite funny to catch the similarities, besides enjoying it for itself.

[KlaraNovikoffa]

Heteronym,
Many thanks for this splendid review! Eca de Queiroz is among my favorite writers, and I thought _The Maias_ was a true masterpiece! I'm delighted to have found out about The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers, and I shall definitely be procuring a copy of it as soon as I can.


~Alexis


"Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things."
~Denis Diderot

[IteseFrusty]

Since you've read The Maias, I think you'll truly appreciate this novel. I don't want to degrade the pleasure of reading it into a mere game of spotting the similarities, but that's a bonus pleasure for those who've read The Maias.

How many novels by E?a have you read, by the way?