Eça de Queirós and The Character As Fiction

Eça de Queirós and the Character as Fiction
Author(s): Carlos Reis

Source: Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 53, No. 2 (2016), pp. 10-30
Published by: University of Wisconsin Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26450416
Accessed: 14-12-2022 20:44 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
University of Wisconsin Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Luso-Brazilian Review
This content downloaded from 8.9.5.148 on Wed, 14 Dec 2022 20:44:35 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
E$a de Queirós and the Character
as Fiction
Carlos Reis
This study analyzes the presence in Ega de Queirós's fiction of literary charac
ters created by writers other than Ega. From this point of view, these charac
ters become fiction, frequently entailing, through their presence, metafictional
considerations. As such, the very concept of literary characters is the object of
attention, through both the narrators in Etna's texts and also their presence in
the fictional discourse of some ofEga's characters, sometimes explicitly referred
to as writers. Furthermore, these borrowed fictional characters bring to Ega's
work possibilities for identification (such as the so-called Bovarism), deter
mined by the circulation of these characters within the cultural imaginary
represented in these novels. The same occurs, from a broader perspective, with
mythological or biblical figures, in a variety of iconographic representations.
Generally speaking the aspects analyzed in this study indicate the fictional
afterlife of these characters and the function ofmetalepsis in the construction
of fiction, including in this construction the refiguration of fictional characters.
Trata-se aqui de analisar a presenga de personagens liter arias de outros

escritores que nao Ega de Queirós, nas suasficgöes. É nesse sentido que a
personagem sefazficgao, envolvendo-se com frequência, nessa presenga,
ponderagöes metaficcionais. Assim, o próprio conceito de personagem é objeto
de atengao, tanto por parte dos narradores dos relatos queirosianos, como até
comparecendo no discurso dasfiguras que Ega concebeu e a que por vezes deu
o estatuto de escritores. Por outro lado, as personagens deficgöes alheias tra
zem as de Ega procedimentos de identificagao (p. ex., o chamado bovarismo),
determinados pela circulagao daquelas personagens no imaginario cultural re
presentado nos romances. O mesmo acontece, em termos mais alargados, com
figuras mitológicas ou biblicas, em representagöes iconograficas de diversa
feigao. De um modo geral, as questöes aqui abordadas dizem respeito ao tema
io Luso-Brazilian Review 53:2

ISSN 0024-7413, © 2016 by
of the University of W
Reis
da sobrevida da personagem e afungao desempenhada pela metalepse na

construfdo de universos defic$ao, incluindo nessa construgao a refiguragao de
figuras ficcionais.
Elba's characters are well known. They have been analyzed, interpreted, re
interpreted, and discussed, at times praised and at others condemned, by
way of diverse paradigms that can be complementary or antagonistic in na
ture. From literary history to psychoanalysis and structuralism, to stylistics,
the sociology of literature, gender studies, postcolonial studies, comparative
studies, and narrative studies: Eâ's characters have fit into these approaches
and more. Heroes and villains, misogynists and the sexually ambivalent,
oedipal figures and, when necessary, anti-oedipal ones, characters who re
flect their time and those who negate or reject it, romantics, late romantics
or pre-modernists: such are the human beings who exist in Eâs stories. As
one can see, the vast Queirosian critical literature has gluttonously fed on the
complexity of Eâ's fictional world. And, in this light, the very diversity of his
abundant cast of characters challenges and at times intimidates those who
study this aspect of his work: c'est Yembarras du choix! The question I propose
to discuss in this intervention isn't exactly what the title of this article, in
its almost simplistic appearance, might suggest. To clarify: by treating Eâ's
characters as fictions, I do not aspire to analyze the fictional characters that
populate his novels and short stories with merely descriptive intention, or
with hermeneutic ambition.
I won't go down those paths because, like many others, I've already tra
versed them, forth and back. When I refer here to the character as fiction, I
allude in general to the Queirosian vocation of inscribing literature itself into
his narratives and into the discourses voiced by the figures we find in them;
a tendency which, begging pardon for invoking the obvious, appears to me
as a basis for building a bridge connecting realism to modernity during the
passage of the nineteenth century into the twentieth. More specifically, I will
refer to various aspects of this topic that is both expansive and, for me, fasci
nating. For example, the fact that other writers' characters make appearances
in E<;a's stories, mentioned by their narrators or by the Queirosian characters
themselves. On another level, the very concept of character emerges punctu
ally in Eâ's fiction, in the context of the stories being narrated and often with
the intent to persuade or convince. Furthermore, fiction itself can be read not
as a closed "space," but rather as a field without rigid borders, a field that can
12 Luso-Brazilian Review 53:2
be "invaded" by beings (characters) who penetrate its boundaries without

restriction. With this, one enters into the orbit of one of the most brilliant
stars in the constellation of the modern study of narrative: metalepsis. I won't
test the reader's patience with a lengthy dissertation on the concept, but at
the same time I cannot ignore the heuristic potential that metalepsis contains
and the meanings we can deduce from it.
I am most interested in showing that the re-fictionalization (or the "re
figuration") of other authors' characters in E<;a's fictions does not take place
by chance; likewise, the form in which the refiguration takes place is not
innocent. Even less is it meant to show off the literary culture that, obviously,
the nineteenth-century writer possessed in exuberance, in a form that he
couldn't suppress when he sat down to write his fiction. In the process (or
processes) that I discuss here, one cannot yet speak of a Pirandellian mod
ernism, of characters in search of an author, but rather of characters who
pass from one author to another. Or characters taking in and harboring other
characters. "Vinha dos bra<;os de um qualquer, passou para os meus ..." (Os
Maias 498) are the words Castro Gomes declared with deliberate cruelty
to Carlos da Maia when he revealed who Maria Eduarda was (or whom he
thought she was ...). I won't state, with a perversity similar to that of Castro
Gomes, that this is what is taking place in E<;a's fictions, but the tendency
is there, with the difference being that in the case of the "characters of an
other" that the Queirosian fiction shows us, they don't come "from the arms
of another": in most cases they have their own identity, literary origin, and
coherent meaning with respect to the contexts into which they are integrated;
or, in other cases where they are only barely sketched by E$a's own characters,
they are recognized as figures inscribed in a literary tradition, in a collective
memory, and in a cognitive framework that sustains their presence.
My explanations for these metafictional references to literary characters
in Ei;a's fictions will come later, in the unfolding of this reflection and also
perhaps in other future moments. I will now move forward with the following
statement: Eâ wrote during a time when literature, which had only shortly
beforehand been institutionalized as a productive activity and as a phenom
enon with a broad social projection, won for itself the magnitude and the
dignity of an activity deserving of a prominent place in literature itself. In
other words: as a theme incorporated into the work of fiction, either on its
own terms or through the presence of a character type that experienced a
vast circulation, particularly in the time of realism: the writer and, with him,
the salon, the literary banquet or the reading performed in a bourgeois en
vironment, sometimes with musical accompaniment, either piano or guitar.
In those days, literature couldn't dramatize its own activity without recourse
to literature itself. This gesture, almost narcissistic and self-valorizing, says
Reis 13
a great deal about the prominence of the writer; it was he who, in the years
following Zola and the Dreyfus affair, opened space for the affirmation of a
new species, the intellectual with whom we have become familiar with over
the course of the twentieth century.
In nineteenth-century fiction (and especially in E<pa de Queirós), litera
ture thematizes itself in various ways which are so well known that I won't cite
more than one or two episodes built around the figure of the writer, whether
he takes the form of a fictional figure or that of a figure transferred from real
life to the literary life on which fiction nourished itself. Take for example
the party that takes place before the departure of Father Amaro from the
house of Sao Joaneira. In that tense, painful situation, Amélia doesn't express
her sadness in her own words, but rather in those of the romantic poet: "Ai!
Adeus! Acabaram-se os dias / Que ditoso vivi a teu lado! / Soa a hora, o mo
menta fadado, / É forôso deixar-te partir!" (O crime 353). Amaro left only to
later return, as is well known; but the emotions expressed in that scene were
framed by the figure of the poet Soares de Passos, himself almost a character
from that universe, which harbors him at a delicate moment. In the literary
salon of the Teatro da Trindade literature is once again present, now in the
inflamed words of a poet-character, Tomas de Alencar. It is he who brings
to the Lisbon social scene of the 1870s a literary form (in this case poetry)
that not only aspires to be other than what it was before, but also to subvert
its traditionally decorative role in such social environments. After hearing
the long poem "A democracia," the count of Gouvarinho exclaims: "—Versos
admiraveis, mas indecentes" (Os Maias 627).
A concrete example, although still without systematic pretensions, does
a good job of demonstrating what I am getting at with this discussion. It
takes place in O primo Basilio, when Sebastiao, worried about Basflio's visits
to his cousin, confides in Juliao, telling him about a past of which few have
knowledge: "Tu sabes que ele foi namoro da Luiza!—disse Sebastiao, baixo,
como assustado da gravidade da confidência" (135). Having been unaware of
this, Juliao went on to learn of the childhood courtship, Basfiio's departure to
Brazil, the breaking off of the engagement. His reaction:
—Mas isso é o enredo da Eugénia Grandet, Sebastiao! Estas-me a contar

0 romance de Balzac. Isso é a Eugénia Grandet!
Sebastiao fitou-o espantado.
—Ora! Nao se pode falar sério contigo. Dou-te a minha palavra de
honra—acrescentou vivamente. (O primo 135)
Note the fact that for Juliao everything makes sense thanks to a Balzac novel,
with Luisa assimilated to Balzac's character and her bitterness. In other
words: in order to be understood, some behaviors need to be associated
with a novel or a fictional character (or to a character from another fiction,

we might say, since we know that Juliao and Luisa are themselves fictional
characters). Curiously, honest yet prosaic Sebastiao resists taking part in this
game by not accepting the idea that a figure can be understood in terms of
another (Eugénie Grandet, of course). He also resists the lack of limitations
regarding the presence of certain noteworthy characters, whether real or fic
tional, in this world of ours (Sebastiao surely hadn't read Don Quixote, and
thus couldn't imagine the possibility of considering his own self a character).
Another aspect that goes without saying: Eâ's novels feed on readings and
literary works, they embrace readers and libraries, novelists and dramatists
who project themselves onto the actions of the narrative and their agents,
conditioning them in various ways. Maria do Rosario Cunha demonstrated
this beautifully in her 2004 book A inscrifdo do livro e da leitura naficgao de
E$a de Queirós and she did such an excellent job that I believe that the matter
has been adequately resolved.
My focus, then, is on the character as fiction, in the terms I mentioned
previously. And, as far as is possible in this text, I will try to analytically draw
out four contexts and functionalities which lead to the evocation or figura
tion of characters and models of characters who migrate into Eâ's fictions.
The first configuration (or type of configuration) of the character as fiction
corresponds to the times when the term or concept of character is utilized
to emphasize the importance of certain entities and attitudes, and also the
efficacy of certain actions. These are valorative acts that establish a certain
literary imaginary and an idea of character as the central category of nar
rative, in aesthetic and ideological terms. We can look, for example, at what
happens to Artur Corvelo when he enters into the social and political life of
Lisbon, with the perplexities inherent to his provincial viewpoint. During a
hotel dinner in which everything seems "muito fino, muito de capital," Artur
reacts in the following manner: "Toda a sua vaidade se dilatava ao sentir-se
ali, a uma mesa rica, entre individuos que supunha personagens da Politica,
das Letras, ou da Finanâ" (A capital! 204). It is as if Artur were living a novel,
and therefore the mere notion of character and its axiology are capable of
representing the astonishment of the parvenu.
In a more sinuous form, one that is not without irony, characters are rec
ognized explicitly as characters retrospectively, after having been recognized
as such. This may seem strange, but it is what we read in Os Maias with re
spect to a minor figure, Batista, Carlos da Maia's faithful valet: "Foi em Co
imbra, nos Paôs de Celas, que Batista come<;ou a ser um personagem" (Os
Maias 145). To clarify, nothing similar is said about any other character in
Os Maias, and thus this "beginning to be a character" should be understood
in the contextualized (and, I repeat, rather ironic) sense that we find here.
There are certain physical traits and behaviors that justify the classification as
Reis 15
a character, as a figure who goes beyond our expectations and subverts them
to the point that we confuse it with the things it is not:
[Batista] era hoje um homem de cinquenta anos, desempenado, robusto, com

um colar de barba grisalha por baixo do queixo, e o ar excessivamente gentle
man. Na rua, muito direito na sua sobrecasaca, com o par de luvas amarelas
espetado na mao, a sua bengala de cana-da-india, os sapatos bem enverni
zado, tinha a consideravel aparência de um alto funcionario. (Os Maias 145)
From this frame of reference, being a character is no negligible aspect of the

text: it has to do with something marked by a sort of syndrome of excess
("excessivamente gentleman," as the text says). Teodoro, from O mandarim,
speaks in the same sense, and with an emphasis on the elements related to the
order of the transcendent: despite being an atheist, he declares that God and
the Devil are "dois personagens, velhos como a Substancia" (89).1 And more:
the metafictional consciousness of character induces other characters to uti
lize the concept as a narrative component with a strong actionable potential.
Or, in clearer terms: characters are tempted to invent characters, even if they
aren't writers, because they need them to participate in their actions. This is
what happens when a spiteful Joao Eduardo sits in a tavern in Leiria, plan
ning to write a flyer that will take revenge on Father Amaro. He imagines it in
these terms: "Joao Eduardo queria-o em forma de romance, de enredo negro,
dando a personagem do paroco os vicios e as perversidades de Caligula e de
Heliogabalo" (O crime 609). The flyer evidently remains to be written and
published, both because of a lack of money for the paper and because the
initiative was dangerous. But an idea is made clear: its not enough to know,
as a famous linguist said, how to do things with words; it's necessary that the
words form a narrative and that, in that narrative, the character assumes the
role that he or she is assigned, as its semantic nucleus.
The utilization and treatment of characters through fictional figures con
ceived as the authors of narratives or dramas doesn't quite reach the level of
a Queirosian topos, but it comes close. And naturally so, due to the already
mentioned frequency in which writer-characters appear in Eâ's fictions.
Three well-known examples: Ernestinho Ledesma (in O primo Basüio), Ar
tur Corvelo (in A capital!), and Gon<;alo Mendes Ramires (in A ilustre Casa
de Ramires). One must recall, however, that in A ilustre Casa de Ramires,
Gon<;alo is a writer out of circumstance more than anything else; yet, this
does not affect what I want to indicate: the others are writers due to their
own choice, a choice that is present in the subtitle of A capital! Comedos duma
carreira. A career as a writer, that is.
What these fictional writers propose to us are veritable figurations of
narrative or dramatic characters, with all the dynamic, gradual, and com
plex aspects of this compositional process.2 And, above all, implicit in these
metafictional figurations is a certain logic of the character demanded by the

artistic principles derived from the ideas about literature that circulated in
Eâ's time. A logic that was not merely intrafictional, but also extensional,
to the degree demanded by nineteenth-century customs and reading pub
lics. The playwright Ledesma recognizes this logic, for example, when he is
forced by his theater s impresario to alter the actions of his characters in the
drama Honra e paixao: the logic of the play dictates that the deceived hus
band should kill his adulterous wife, but the impresario, whose words are
cited by Ernestinho, "quer é que o marido lhe perdoe" because he thinks "que
o publico .. . nao gosta! Que nao sao coisas ca para o nosso pais" (O primo
46). The sensible words of Councillor Acacio, provide confirmation: "a falar
a verdade, sr. Ledesma, o nosso publico nao é geralmente afeto a cenas de
sangue" (O primo 46). In the end, Ernestinho pardons the adulterous wife,
as in the end it becomes clear that the back-and-forth discussion about the
play dialogues, in a relatively evident mise en abime framework, with the
case of Luisa: without being Agata from Honra e paixao, Luisa mimics the
metafictional character. And Jorge ends up doing the same: he pardons her,
following the example of the character Julio, Ledesmas fictional creation.
Acacio was right: violent scenes do not make for good resolutions.
I will now consider another aspect of the logic of the character, but a dif
ferent logic that has to do with the character s extra-fictional relations and the
offenses they can provoke. I refer here to the episode in which Artur Corvelo
reads a portion of his Amores de poeta to the bored group he is treating to
dinner. Artur explains: "Alvaro, um poeta, ama a duquesa de S. Remualdo,"
to which Padilhao, one of those bored dinner guests, replies: "—Ora essa! E
entao que ha de pensar a senhora Condessa de S. Remualdo, uma senhora
respeitavel!" (A capital! 236). Pinheiro Chagas would evidently subscribe to
this protest, judging by the accusation he directed at E<;a: according to Cha
gas, Tomas de Alencar was himself a caricature of a respectable poet named
Bulhao Pato. The accusation provoked a well-known response from E(ja, dev
astating in its sarcasm and literary intelligence.3
This sort of unpleasantness appears unmerited when we remember
that Artur, a young playwright at the beginning of his career, works tire
lessly in creating his characters. We can perceive in Artur a dedication to
the labor of writing that recalls Queirós's own experience in preparing his
literary projects, an experience of which abundant testimonies can be found
in his literary estate.4 Similar to Eâ himself who couldn't resist exercises in
self-caricature—as appeared obvious on various occasions—Artur Corvelo,
before writing the drama that he brings with him to Lisbon, meticulously
summarizes the respective actions and features of his characters:
O poeta Alvaro (que era ele mesmo, Artur) pobre e sublime, fanatizava
e possuia a linda, a doce duquesa de S. Romualdo [sfc] (que era a senhora
Reis 17
Baronesa de Pedralva). O duque, um ca<;ador obtuso e brutal com avós até

aos visigodos (a que o valente Teodósio servira de modelo), insultava o po
eta, arremessando-lhe a luva branca num sarau de mascaras; batiam-se de
madrugada num cemitério, depois dum monólogo em que, a maneira de
Hamlet, Alvaro, tomando cranios na mao, meditava na Morte; ferido, ia mor
rer no regatjo da duquesa, que corria, vestida de branco, dentre os ciprestes.
(A capital! 151)
Padilhao (and therefore Pinheiro Chagas as well) seems to be correct: the

characters bring to mind real people and induce processes of figuration
of varying degrees of sophistication (although the notion of figuration re
mained unknown to both Padilhao and Chagas). Furthermore: that figura
tion convokes, in order to illustrate those odious figures, the bourgeoisie of
Oliveira (whom Artur detested) and above all, in the case of the heroine of
the drama, literary characters. As he "pisava linhaâ no almofariz da farma
cia [Artur] deu a duquesa todas as gramas e todas as dedicates, encheu-a
de reminiscências de Julieta, de Carlota, de Lélia, da Dama das Camélias"
(A capital 152).5 All this in addition to the highly charged Hamletian scene
where Alvaro speaks at length about death amidst skulls, in the inevitable
cemetery. Images of Chinese boxes or Russian matryoshkas are almost oblig
atory in this context: Artur, a fictional character, constructs, as an incipient
playwright, another fictional character (the duchess), this one based on a
"real" figure, the Baroness of Pedralva. But that's not all: the duchess herself
relates to a series of fictional characters. To summarize in a rapid and perhaps
enigmatic form: an exercise in metalepsis in all its splendor.
Naturally, much of what has been said thus far can be reencountered in
the later works of an Ecâ who was at that point capable of producing a refined
formulation of the character as fiction and was furthermore distanced from
any obligations to literary schools. I refer in this case to Gonâlo, the novelist
in A ilustre Casa de Ramires, a character and a theme which have already
been widely studied in Queirosian scholarship.61 return to him in order to
emphasize once again that it is not only in Eâ's case that the composition
of characters results from an often-arduous writing process: it's also true for
his writer-characters who themselves work to create other characters. Along
these lines, Gonâlo desires to metafictionally rescue a group of individuals
hailing from a distant past and convert them into characters in a historical
novel: "seus avós, enormes, ressoantes, chapeados de ferro, e mais vagos que
fumos" (A ilustre 91). One member of this group stands out against the rest:
Tructesindo Ramires, "Tructesindo rude e leal que o Fidalgo da Torre rija
mente modelava" (A ilustre 123), brought to life by Gonâlo in a figuration
tormented by doubts:
E depois, nem o consolava a certeza de construir obra forte. Esses Tructesin

dos, esses Bastardos, esses Castros, esses Sabedores eram realmente varöes
i8 Luso-Brazilian Review 53:2
afonsinos, de sólida substantia histórica? . . . Talvez apenas ocos titeres, mal

engonijados em erradas armaduras, povoando inveridicos arraiais e castelos,
sem um gesto ou dizer que datassem das velhas idades! (A ilustre 363)
As I see it, all of this is overcome, in the form of a satire that borders on
parody, in an extraordinary caricature of metafictional figuration found in A
cidade e as serras. As happens so many times in this semi-posthumous novel,
its episodes, characters, and dialogues appear to communicate a frivolity that
at first glance appears to represent the "distinguished" superficiality of the
social universe that rotates around Jacinto's Parisian mansion.
The supposed linearity of that representation becomes more complex and
consequential when we recognize that it is filtered through the perplexed and
entertained perspective of a certain Zé Fernandes, who has arrived to the
capital directly from the mountains. Neither he nor Jacinto are writers; but
both of them socialize in a cultural space where books and literary writing
occupy a prominent place7 marked by excesses and sophistications associa
te with a certain syndrome of exaggeration: when Zé Fernandes wanted to
know why "Jacinto anda tao murcho, tao corcunda," the servant Grilo re
sponded knowingly: "Sua Excelência sofre de fartura" (A cidade 81). A type
of mal de fin-de-siècle, in my opinion.
An oversaturation of ridiculousness characterizes the discussions of
literary character we read when, in a chic dinner at Champs-Élysées 202,
we come across a certain "feminist psychologist" (whose name is not men
tioned), who is the author of Corafao triple (A cidade 54). Highly praised for
the psychological acumen of A couraga, a novel in which "nunca penetrara
tao fundamente, na velha alma humana, a ponta da Psicologia Experimental,"
the celebrated novelist is then faced with a scandal (A cidade 54-55). It takes
place when the powerful director of the Boulevard, going against the chorus
of praise, points out that, with respect to the characterization of one of the
novel's characters, there is an error "bem inesperado num mestre tao expe
riente!... Era atribuir a esplêndida amorosa da Cour a fa, uma duquesa, e do
gosto mais puro,—um colete de cetimpreto!" (A cidade 55). And he later adds:
"Pois era verosimil, numa mulher como a duquesa, estética, pré-rafaelitica,
que se vestia no Doucet, no Paquin, nos costureiros intelectuais, um colete de
cetim preto?" (A cidade 55).
What is at stake here is the figuration of the character, the descriptive
techniques and the character's psychosocial coherence. Marizac's ferocious
critique cuts deep, as I will demonstrate, but not without first citing the pas
sage that follows it:
O psicólogo emudecera, colhido, trespassado! Marizac era uma tao su

prema autoridade sobre a roupa intima das duquesas, que a tarde, em quartos
de rapazes, por impulsos idealistas e anseios de alma dolorida—se pöem em
colete e saia branca!... De resto 0 diretor do Boulevard condenara logo sem
Reis 19
piedade, com uma experiência firme, aquele colete, só possivel nalguma mer
ceeira atrasada que ainda procurasse efeitos de carne nédia sobre cetim negro.
E eu, para que me nao julgassem alheio as coisas dos adultérios ducais e do
luxo, acudi, metendo os dedos pelo cabelo:
—Realmente, preto, só se estivesse de luto pesado, pelo pai! (A cidade 56)
As you can see, not even Zé Fernandes passes on the chance to voice his
opinion. In other words: undressed in front of that group of gentlemen, the
duchess of A couraga is now, once again, a character being refigured (at the
end of the day, the color of a woman's corset is no secondary matter). Sig
nificantly, the refiguration is determined by the substantial intervention of
the business (Marizac and the Boulevard magazine, that is) or, as we would
say today, by the magazines editorial page. It's this opinion that, even after
the publication of the novel, drags the character back into consideration as
an unfinished figure in need of revision. This thus confirms that figuration
is a dynamic and progressive condition, and it furthermore ensures, along
somewhat ungainly lines, the survival of the character through the process of
reconstruction: the duchess will take off the black corset and put on another
of a more adequate color. "Pronto a fazer uma retifica<;ao," the psychologist/
novelist begins to reelaborate his character: "Mesmo por harmonia com o
estado de alma da duquesa devia ser lilas, talvez cor de reseda muito des
maiada, com um frouxo de rendas antigas de Malines" (A cidade 56).
In the end it matters little what color is chosen for the duchess's corset.
What I wish to point out is that, in the context of a metafictional reflection,
the character begins to give signs of an inconsistency stemming from the psy
chological tendency that becomes prominent in turn-of-the-century fiction,
and which reaches back into the lifetime of Eâ de Queirós. A tendency that,
obviously, could only produce reservation and sarcasm in an Ecja formed by
the nineteenth-century aesthetic of the novel and of character. Moving for
ward in time in a perhaps ambitious fashion: the character whose clothing
changes color isn't yet the avatar that digital literatures devices have brought
to us in an electronic environment; but her instability certainly precedes the
modernist character, a figure in fieri, unstable and experiencing an identity
crisis, and who can already be found there, at the turn of the century.
Of another nature than the above examples is the presence of literary fig
ures in the attitudes, which I would call of identification, that are embodied
in certain characters of Queirós's fiction. In acts of literary reading, and along
lines that I have already mentioned (Cunha 245), Etna's characters reencoun
ter themselves in the fiction that they read and in the characters who stand
out in those works. A typical example would be Luisa, seduced by the Lady of
the Camellias, by its world and by the figures who pass through it:
Havia uma semana que se interessava por Margarida Gautier: o seu amor in
feliz dava lhe uma melancolia enevoada... nos nomes mesmos do livro—Julia
Duprat, Armando, Prudência, achava o sabor poético de uma vida intensa

mente amorosa. (O primo 18)
In a form that is more expressive of the issues that are of interest here, the
identification of characters with literary figures takes place in function of
motifs involving costumes that are inspired by those other figures. The cos
tume brings to the fictional scene an other, a person who nonetheless does not
make the person who wears it completely invisible; in this sense, costumes,
masks, or physiognomic transformations can function as prolongations or
symbolic suggestions, eventually in a regime of irony and parody (we're
talking about E<;a, after all) that is only possible because a character with a
fictional object is implied in those prolongations or suggestions. Or doubly
fictional, because that other "migratory" character comes from its own fic
tional world only to be captured by a Queirosian character who (literally)
incorporates the other character into his or herself.
I will examine a specific episode of Os Maias and its consequences. In this
case, "tratava-se de uma grande soirée mascarada que iam dar os Cohens, no
dia dos anos de Raquel" (206). As a result, a number of the novels charac
ters who plan on attending the masquerade ball imitate literary or operatic
characters (it makes little difference for this analysis) for their costumes. Or
not, because Carlos da Maia refuses to take part in the game: Carlos prefers
a "domino, um severo domino preto, como convém a um homem de ciência"
(Os Maias 206); that is, he does dress up, but in a neutral form and without
assuming another identity. Joao de Ega dislikes Carlos's idea and proposes an
alternative that is charged with meaning, which I will later discuss.
With respect to Ega, the solution is a daring one that involves a great deal
of preparation, which demonstrates that his choice is not a fortuitous one:
Joao da Ega dresses up as Mephistopheles, as would seem to suit a person
who, since his time in Coimbra, cultivated a Satanic image that he continued
to project in Lisbon of the 1870s.8 Ega's choice also makes sense in a broader
context, one which I shall only mention in passing: that of the manifestations
of Satanism (and of Mephistopheles) in Etna's works.9 For now, I'll emphasize
that the choice is ambitious. It accesses a character who has one of the longest
and most varied circulations in European culture, a circulation that found
its most famous interpretation in Goethe's Faust. However, the Mephistoph
eles in whose image Joao da Ega disguises himself with a laboriously con
structed costume assembled in a climate of mystery is perhaps that of Charles
Gounod's Faust, the operatic version that had attained a notoriety confirmed
in a decisive moment of the action of O primo Basüio; it is there that, as Luisa,
Jorge, and Dona Felicidade go to the opera, the action of Faust is summarized
and commented on in detail, in a passage that glosses the topos of the theater
within the novel.10
Reis 21
If Joao da Ega goes as Mephistopheles, Raquel Cohen chooses, naturally,

Margarida, the modest and ingenuous figure who, with Ega, completes the
couple needed for the unfolding of the action. As we know, Ega is thrown out
of the ball and appears in front of Carlos da Maia bearing an expression that
the focalized perspective of the protagonist sets in stark relief, emphasizing
the comically ambivalent state of his friend:
Pela escada acima, duas penas negras de galo ondearam, um manto es

carlate, esvoa<;ou—e o Ega estava diante dele, caracterizado, vestido de
Mefistófeles!
Carlos apenas póde dizer: bravo!—o aspeto do Ega emudeceu-o. Ape

sar dos toques de caracterizaâo que quase o mascaravam—sobrancelhas de
Diabo, guias de bigode ferozmente exageradas—, sentia-se bem a afliâo em
que vinha, com os olhos injetados, perdido, numa terrivel palidez. (Os Maias
278)
Here Joao da Ega bears an even closer resemblance to the Mephistopheles

whom he wanted to incarnate but whose role he can no longer sustain in his
current circumstances, after being "deconstructed" in the unpleasant scene
in which he was thrown out by the deceived husband. The deconstruction of
Margarida/Raquel Cohen is more prosaic in nature: it comes to its conclu
sion in the intimacy of an alcove, as her husband shouts and beats her with
a cane.
In the end, after a great deal of exaggerated exaltation and "

of anger" ("a que as medonhas sobrancelhas de crepe, as du
ondeando na gorra, davam una ferocidade teatral e cómica"
Ega reenters reality and takes off the costume and the ch
topheles was decidedly excessive, for him and for Lisbon.
he found himself "diante do espelho" (in search of his true id
hesitava em desmanchar o seu semblante feroz de Satanas"
But it had to be so, as in the famous scene in which Calvero,
removes his makeup: "off comes the makeup / off comes the c
as a song by Bobby Darin goes, a song that would make se
Joao da Ega too small for so large a character. "Falhamos
(730), as he puts it at the end of the novel, now a much o
ending that his failed turn as Mephistopheles anticipates:
character, my friend!," Ega might as well have said, when we
left of the Mephistophelian figure: "o pobre Ega tinha o ar la
Satanas pelintra, agasalhado pela caridade de um gentleman
fato velho" (282-83).
We must return to Carlos da Maia and his non-costume.
above, Ega disapproves of the simplicity of the domino Ca
his costume and proposes something different: "com aquele es
de cavaleiro da Renascen<pa, devia ornar a sala pelo menos com um soberbo

Francisco I" (Os Maias 206). And after all, the countess of Gouvarinho, with
whom Carlos will have an affair, as we know, goes dressed as Margarida de
Navarra, "a duquesa de Angoulême, a irma de Francisco I" (Os Maias 206),
as Ega explains. His observation, with a perhaps unnecessary degree of clar
ity, points toward the later development of the incestuous relationship that
is to come. More than that seemingly obvious observation, though, I would
like to call attention to a particular aspect of the intuition/prediction of Joao
da Ega: Carloss case can't be reduced to a brief game played with costumes
of literary characters, in a deceitful comedy occurring in a mundane set
ting; he thus brings out the fictional possibilities of the tangible historical
condition of Francisco I and Margarida de Navarra. Along similar lines, the
incest between Carlos and Maria Eduarda will take place in the concrete life
of another "history," that of a nineteenth-century Portuguese family: in that
life, historic in its own way, there is no room for the masqueraded futility of
a ball and the costumes it inspires. Refusing to be Francisco I and to form
a couple with Margarida (as Ega desired), Carlos unconsciously refuses to
enter into a masquerade-style diversion with a make-believe sister. The tragic
hero doesn't relinquish his role, in the same way that he refrains from mixing
his destiny with the frivolity of a costume ball.
Before moving on to the considerations of another type that will conclude
this analysis, I must briefly refer to one last modality of the figuration of
other characters in Queirós's fiction. I am referring specifically to the literary,
mythological, or biblical figures that appear in Queirosian texts, and in the
lives of the characters of those texts, through iconographic representations
in various mediums and techniques: engravings, paintings, or stone carvings
that are presented by way of evocation or direct observation and prolong
the existence of those other characters in Eâ's stories. This does not have to
do with refined and culturally sophisticated experiences (or better: it doesn't
always have to do with these sorts of experiences). Rather, we are faced with
an effect derived from the evolution and increasing perfection of the graphic
arts over the course of the nineteenth century, as well as other sociocultural
phenomena resulting from that evolution. Already approaching the age of
mechanical reproducibility described by Walter Benjamin in his famous es
say, works of art became progressively more accessible to bourgeois viewing
publics, transcending the restrictions imposed on their contemplation by
private collectors and salons. Ecpa's fascination with painting and its relevance
in his literary production, a well-known and oft-studied topic, has to do with
all of this and more, as the following discussion will show.11
The living room of Luisa and Jorge's bourgeois home shows signs of the
aforementioned evolution: in it are displayed "duas gravuras (a Medeia de
Delacroix e a Martir de Delaroche), as encaderna^öes escarlates dos dois
Reis 23
vastos volumes do Dante de G. Doré" (O primo 25). For now, I will set aside
Delacroix and Delaroche and omit unnecessary considerations of the sig
nificance of Gustave Doré in the imaginary of European romanticism; in
stead I will simply point out that those volumes of Dante (it is, of course
the illustrated Divine Comedy, et pour cause) reappear in the action of the
novel when, in chapter nine, Juliao Zuzarte explains to the repressed Dona
Felicidade the identity of the amorous characters who appear in the Divine
Comedy:
—É um caso de amor infeliz, sr." D. Felicidade—disse Juliao. —É a

história triste de Paulo e Francesca de Rimini. —E explicando 0 desenho:
—Aquela senhora sentada é Francesca: este 01090 de guedelha, ajoelhado aos
pés dela, e que a abraija, é seu cunhado, e, lamento ter de o dizer, seu amante.
E aquele barbatjas, que la ao fundo levanta o reposteiro e saca da espada, é o
marido que vem, e zas! —E fez o gesto de enterrar o ferro. (O primo 296-97)
The scene makes an impression on Dona Felicidade, reigniting her sexual

fantasies and suggesting to us, once again, the "dialogue" between the story of
Luisa's adultery and the literature that, en abime, is represented in the novel.
Of this, however, Dona Felicidade remains unaware. The characters of the
Divine Comedy, the prototypical example of the afterlife of figures who enter
into the existence of other characters, here represent a morally condemnable
passion; which doesn't prevent Dona Felicidade from seeing herself in such
characters, whom she clearly does not know from a prior reading experi
ence, but rather by way of the images she contemplates. Juliao clarifies that
"segundo a mesma confissao de Francesca, este moô, o da guedelha, o cun
hado, La boca me baccio tutto tremante, o que significa: —A boca me beijou
tremendo todo" (O primo 297). Of course, Dona Felicidade cant help asking,
at the same time as she casts "um olhar rapido para o Conselheiro. —É uma
novela?" (Oprimo 297).
The response to her question comes immediately, through the words of
that object of desire (for Dona Felicidade, of course), the Councilor Acacio. It
is left to him to explain and, at the same time, reestablish a degree of order in
a conversation that has been invaded by the shocking case of Paolo and Fran
cesca: É o Dante, D. Felicidade—acudiu com severidade o Conselheiro—
um poema épico classificado entre os melhores. Inferior, porém, ao nosso
Camöes! Mas rival do famoso Milton!" (O primo 297). There are more and
perhaps better examples in Queiróss fictions. In order to return once more
to Os Maias, Id like to recall the place occupied in the novel by the paintings
of Rubens and the mythological entities and motifs they cultivate; a carnal
image of femininity is revealed to us through the characters appearing in
these paintings, an image that is in tune with the pagan sensuality exhibited
by those mythological characters.
In chapter five of Os Maias, in reference to one of Carlos da Maia's past

idylls, Madame Rughel is described as a "soberba criatura de cabelos de oiro
fulvo," who was "grande e branca como uma ninfa de Rubens" (101). I do not
know if E<;a ever set eyes upon the "Nymphs and Satyrs" or "Diana and her
Nymphs on the Hunt";121 would venture to guess, however, that he had only
read descriptions of these or other similar paintings, which in turn autho
rized him (like when he spoke of Courbet, in the Conferência do Casino) to
speak of things he had never seen. What is certain, though, is that later, and
in line with this image, Carlos da Maia confides to his servant Batista: "Ma
dame Rughel era uma ninfa de Rubens" (Os Maias 148). A certain Rubens,
it bears repeating, that diverges from the one we see much later as we draw
close to the casket of Afonso da Maia, in a moment when the pagan register
of mythological creatures would make little sense: "Por cima, o Cristo de
Rubens abria os braôs, sobre a vermelhidao do poente" (Os Maias 690).
We encounter a meaning similar to the one announced by this Christ
figure—a meaning of the order of eschatology, religious fear, and the punish
ment of transgression—when we reach the moment that another character
of biblical origin makes his appearance: John the Baptist. Here it might be
said that, rigorously speaking, we are not dealing with a fictional figure like
Mephistopheles or Eugénie Grandet. To that, however, I would reply with
the following: the lengthy passage of John the Baptist through the occiden
tal imaginary, including abundant representations above all in painting and
literature, in a way "institutionalized" John the Baptist as a character, in a
narrative frame that is at the very least parafictional in nature.13 In the epi
sode that depicts the amorous arrangement of Maria Eduarda moving into
the "Toca," a room is described as "uma sala forrada de tapeârias, onde des
maiavam, na trama de la, os amores de Venus e Marte" (Os Maias 446). From
that chamber and from that mythological affair, the alcove is granted a clarity
later darkened by a detail noted by Maria Eduarda (that Carlos does not no
tice): "um painel antigo, defumado, ressaltando em negro do fundo de todo
aquele oiro—onde apenas se distinguia uma cabeâ degolada, livida, gelada
no seu sangue, dentro de um prato de cobre" (Os Maias 446). The head is that
of John the Baptist, naturally; and it brings with it a sinister warning, recall
ing the violent sacrifice required to defend the moral values disregarded by
the act of incest.
I now turn to how we can integrate the metafictionalized character within
the frame of E<;as fictional writings, including in these writings the processes
of figuration. There is certainly a nineteenth-century ethos of the character
that values the social and axiological components of this decisive category
of narrative; and, along with those components, their functionality in the
complex narrative "machine" that is the novel that we might refer to as the
Balzacian variety. For this to be the case, the character cannot be sufficient
Reis 25
in itself: other characters from other fictions (and even from other artistic
forms) converge in the fictional universe that the novelist sets in motion.
This is certainly a case of literature (and art) within literature, a motif so
ancient and so well known that further analysis of this phenomenon would
be unnecessary at this point, due to the fact that so many others have al
ready discussed this subject at length. Furthermore, the nineteenth-century
novel (and the Queirosian novel) does not escape the ekphrastic drive that
is shared by countless artistic manifestations of western culture; this drive
results in the development of a literature inscribed in fiction or literature in
the second degree (to use Genettes expressions). This inscribed literature is
the result of the authors own readings, of the episodes and characters that
result from those readings, and of an artistic culture that, even when it is
apprehended in a mediated fashion, provides fuel for fictional composition.
Here the notion of intermediality, today an established term in the areas of
narrative studies and interartistic studies, has a pertinence that, as I see it,
merits deeper consideration.14
On a larger scale, a rock appears in the middle of our path such that we
cannot avoid it: that rock is called metalepsis, a concept that continues to
grow in importance in the field of narrative studies,15 designating all types of
shifts in the level at which a given component is inserted into a story and is
capable of passing between distinct autonomous worlds. These are, for exam
ple, from reality to fiction, or, as I have shown, from one fiction to another.
This is the case of the character as fiction in E$a, that is, of the figures that
hail from other fictional worlds and "penetrate" into the Queirosian fictional
world. I have already mentioned the functions they carry out in that world,
the registers in which this occurs (admiration, parody, etc.), and the effects
that can thus be deduced, but these phenomena surely merit a more ample
and expansive study.
For now, I should point out the following: the fictional representation
of characters (from other works) is also a manifestation of the afterlife of
fictional figures. This has to do with a specific and more elaborated modality
of what I referred to on another occasion as "an ontological drift, at times
more daring than we think, when the character attempts to migrate from
the fictional world into the real world. The character then gains, in relation
to the original figuration, an autonomous existence, deduced... from the so
called life of the literary work" (Pessoas de livro 134). In the case that interests
me here, the metafictionalization of a well-known character can be under
stood as an act of refiguration. It thus has to do with a new discursive and
fictional elaboration of the character who originates in another work, with
all of the cognitive consequences implicated in that recomposition. More
specifically: the Eugénie Grandet mentioned by Juliao Zuzarte is not strictly
Balzac's Eugénie Grandet, but rather that of Juliao Zuzarte; in a sense the
same character but at the same time another, made to produce effects in his
conversation with Sebastiao. And the nymphs painted by Rubens and alluded
to by Carlos da Maia incorporate, in their exuberant incarnation, the recol
lection of a "proud creature with tawny-golden tresses," that unforgettable
Madame Rughei (Os Maias 101). Ultimately, these are practices that affirm
the transcendence attained by great characters, even when they hail from
artistic realms other than literature (the John the Baptist in the painting, for
example); on the other hand, these characters translate the impulse of nov
elistic fiction to reinvent itself as the memory of literature and art, reaping
from that reinvention the meanings we inferred from the flow of characters
that pass from one fiction to another.
Naturally, E<;a de Queirós is in good company as one of the chief protago
nists of this veritable celebration of literature as a means of resisting oblivion.
Or as an evocation of its own self, if one prefers. As I consider Eâ's contem
poraries, three cases come to mind: in Madame Bovary, the Lucy Ashton of
Walter Scott's The Bride ofLammermor enters into Emmas world, refigured
by Donizetti's opera as Lucia di Lammermor. Lucy's arrival in Emma's world
and the resulting empathetic relationship contribute to the phenomenon
we know as Bovarism, a behavioral and emotional syndrome later exported
to other fictions—including those of E<;a. Second case: in La Regenta, Ana
Ozores comes across the character of Don Juan during a theatrical represen
tation of Zorrilla's play, and later sets off to encounter a figure of declaredly
romantic characteristics: "Ana se sentia transportada a la época de D. Juan,
que se figuraba como el vago romanticismo arqueológico quiere que haya
sido" (La Regenta 104-105). An inevitable commentary: in a narrative situ
ation similar to that of Emma and her fascination with the opera, Bovarism
expands, and it is also its tutelary figure who, in complicity with Don Juan,
enters into the world of Clarins masterful novel.16
Finally, Machado de Assis and, in Memórias póstumas de Bras Cubas, the
metafictional representation of a pair of characters announced in the title of
chapter six: "Chimène, qui leut dit? Rodrigue, qui l'eüt cru?" It is this dou
ble interrogation of the characters of the Cid that later resounds in the text,
prolonging the figures of Corneille's tragedy in a subsequent interrogation:
"Quem diria? De dois grandes namorados, de duas paixöes sem freio, nada
mais havia ali, vinte anos depois; havia apenas dois cora^öes murchos, dev
astados pela vida e saciados dela, nao sei se em igual dose, mas enfim sacia
dos" (Memórias 76). Only Machado de Assis would bring, from the remote
outposts of French classicism and from one of its seventeenth-century works,
two characters, of whose origin the reader may be unaware and who are only
fleetingly identified by two lines of dialogue. Only the cultural prowess of a
great writer, associated with the bitterly ironic vocation that we recognize in
him, could set in motion such a gesture of metafictional import. What role
Reis
do Rodrigue and Chimène play here, one asks? They do something more
than flaunt Mach ado's literary culture, in my opinion.
Entering the country house in Catumbi, in the alcove in which Bras Cu
bas lies in agony with Virgi'lia by his side, Corneille's characters take part in
a confrontation. With the characters comes a tragic love and its irresolvable
dilemmas: to love or to hate, to pardon or to avenge, to live or to die. These
are the terrible choices that the two lovers must make, under the sign of the
grandeur of their destinies. Twenty years later, what remains in the place of
that grandeur for the two lovers of times past are two hearts withered and
satiated by life. The resigned desistance, the melancholic, disenchanted, and
empty mark of two lives that cannot be countered even by the certainty of
death. Only in the cynical comfort of posterity, and with no small dose of
irony on the part of Machado, can Bras Cubas (and we as readers) perceive
that certain characters, originating in other times, are still capable of tor
menting us in what remains of our fragile lives.
Like his literary brethren and at times to a greater extent than them, Eâ de
Queirós spent his entire literary life carrying his characters along with him.
"Sou eu e os meus abutres," those are the words of a still-young E<;a when he
arrived at the house of Batalha Reis at a time when, for him, the character was
still a shadow difficult to make out in the fogs of the Lisbon bohemia.171 won t
claim that after that point the writer scared off his vultures or that he came to
conceive a character of whom, like the novelist he so admired, he could say:
"cest moi!" For as much as he added to the number of vultures circling him,
and as if they still remained insufficient, E<ja continued to add characters.
Central to this endeavor was his conviction that, in the novel, the short story,
the novella, and even in letters and journalistic chronicles, the character was
the supreme instance of the production of narrative meaning.
This conviction is manifested in the final title of Queirós's literary pro
duction, A cidade e as serras, an unfinished novel filled with an abundance of
books, the ideas they contain, and the characters that inhabit them. Naturally,
I refer to that "majestoso armazém dos productos do Raciocinio e da Imag
ina<;ao" (A cidade 29) (Zé Fernandes dixit) that was Jacinto's Parisian library.
However, that repository of characters remains in Champs-Élysées 202, stuck
in the idle lethargy of an existence contaminated by excess. As I referred to
above, "Sua Excelência sofre de fartura" (A cidade 81), says the servant Grilo
with respect to his master, with words that contain an ingenious and fitting
diagnosis of an entire turn-of-the-century civilization that ardently debated
the color of the corset of a pre-Raphaelite character. And thus when Jacinto
and Zé Fernandes travel to the mountains to which the latter character re
turns, they don't travel alone, nor will they be unaccompanied upon their
arrival. Even before settling into the austere simplicity of an old house hid
den in the hills of the Douro, they both ascend the mountain in an oft-cited
passage. Even more than the description, what must be recognized here is the
pleasure with which Jacinto, riding a greyish mare, mutters "—Que beleza!";
soon afterward we hear an echo of that admiration in Zé Fernandes: "E eu
atras, no burro de Sancho, murmurava: —Que beleza" (A cidade 136). And
there it is: departed from the pages of Don Quixote, a character enters into
Jacinto's story who will help him to overcome that decadence of laughter of
which E<;a spoke in an admirable 1889 text.18 Sancho enters and with him the
Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance, for in the dialectic that unites them,
one cannot exist without the other.19
Without Sancho's donkey, Eâ's fiction would not be what it is. And thus,
as he composed the story that drew his literary life to a close, the great writer
comes once more to tell us what he had expressed in the other fictions he
created: that, in every story we tell, we add to the list of characters whose
lives we read another list of characters who originated in other stories. All of
them participate in the Grand Narrative that, without ruptures or seams (like
a Möbius strip, no doubt), always returns to its beginning. Other characters,
other fictions, a never-ending story, moving in a constant circle. It is also for
that reason that the character becomes fiction.
Notes
Originally presented in Portuguese as "E$a de Queirós e a personagem como ficâo."

Transatlantic Dialogues: Realism and Modernity in E<;a de Queirós and Machado de
Assis, October 24, 2015, Indiana University Bloomington. Translated from the Portu
guese by Matt Johnson.
1. The designation is brought back in relation to the bourgeois figuration of the
Devil that appears to Teodoro: "Eu sei o que deve a si mesmo um cristao. Se este
personagem me tivesse levado ao cume de uma montanha na Palestina... eu saberia
replicar-lhe, seguindo um exemplo ilustre, e erguendo o dedo as profundidades con
steladas: —'O meu reino nao é deste mundo!'" (O mandarim 97). And again: "Uma
noite, recolhendo só por uma rua deserta, vi diante de mim o Personagem vestido de
preto com o guarda-chuva debaixo do braô" (O mandarim 191).
2. I discuss this in a recent publication (Pessoas de livro 119).
3. See the public letter "Tomas de Alencar (Uma explicafao)—Carta a Carlos Lobo
d'Avila" (in Queirós, Cartas 223-31). For more about the polemic between Chagas and
Eâ, see Lourenô, 2000 and Reis, 2013.
4. Such testimonies are analyzed extensively in Reis and Milheiro, 1989.
5. Present in this step is the Ecja that, around 1879 (grosso modo, the time during
which he wrote a substantial part of A capital!), drafted a known programmatic text
about the figuration of the character in light of romantic idealism's principles, in
contrast with the figuration of the same character molded by natural realism. The
referred to text was his answer to Machado de Assis's critique of O primo Basüio and
Reis 29
can be found in the appendix of the critical edition of Almanaques e outros dispersos
(Queirós 340-58).
6. See Reis, Estudos 181-83 and Cunha 300-302.
7. See, among other texts, the chronicle that E<;a wrote for Rio de Janeiro's Gazeta
de noticias: "Acerca dos livros," published on November 17,1881 (in Queirós, Textos
de imprensa. IV155-65).
8. It is in the following manner that Ega appears to Carlos in Lisbon: "Desem
bara<;ado da majestade que lhe dava a peliija, o antigo Ega reaparecia, perorando com
os seus gestos aduncos de Mefistófeles em verve, lan<;ando-se pela sala como se fosse
voar ao vibrar as suas grandes frases, numa luta constante com o monóculo, que lhe
caia do olho, que ele procurava pelo peito, pelos ombros, pelos rins, retorcendo-se,
deslocando-se, como mordido por bichos" (Os Maias 116).
9. With respect to Mephistopheles, later in 1867, in the Gazeta de Portugal, the young
E91 devotes a part of a folhetim to Faust and to Mephistopheles, "a figura dramatica
e sintética" (Queirós, Textos de imprensa. 1155). Also compare to Carvalho 104-107.
10. It deals with a narrative situation that, in the framework of liberal society's
customs, treated the Teatro de S. Carlos as one of the "lugares de 'Passeio,' aquele que
mais se adequava a fun<;ao de prestigio" (Carvalho 31).
11. In particular, I refer to Silva, 1986.
12. Both paintings can be seen at the Prado Museum. The first is oil on canvas, the
second oil on wood.
13. In "Narration in Various Media," in The Living Handbook ofNarratology, Marie

Laure Ryan notes the narrative features of the episode of S. Joao Batista's decapitation
in the painting, referring to the composite work by Benozzo Gozzoli, "Beheading of
St. John the Baptist."
14. See Ryan.
15. A characterization of the concept of metalepsis, accompanied by abundant ref
erences to its theoretical origin and to its operational deepening, can be found in
John Pier's text.
16. The presence of the "inevitavel Flaubert" and of Madame Bovary in Clarin and
in E<;a has been discussed by António Apolinario Lourenô in his doctoral thesis
about naturalism in the Iberian Peninsula (See Ega 499-528).
17. The expression is quoted by Jaime Batalha Reis, in the well-known text, "Na
primeira fase da vida literaria de E$a de Queirós," written for the first edition of the
volume Prosas barbaras (in Queirós, Textos de imprensa. 1169).
18. The text is a chronicle published in Rio de Janeiro's Gazeta de noticias on Feb
ruary 8,1892 (Queirós, Textos de imprensa. IV 237-41).
19. Quixote's presence in Eâ and, in particular, in A cidade e as serras, is analyzed
in Sousa (103).
Works Cited
Alas, Leopoldo "Clarin." La Regenta. Vol. 2.1885. 6th ed. Madrid: Catedra, 1992. Print.
Assis, Joaquim Maria Machado de. Memórias póstumas de Brds Cubas. 1881. 3rd ed.
Sao Paulo: Ateliê Editorial, 2001. Print.
Carvalho, Mario Vieira de. Ega de Qu

fistófeles. Lisbon: Edi^öes Colibri/F
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1999. P
Cunha, Maria do Rosario. A inscrigao d
Coimbra: Almedina, 2004. Print.
Genette, Gérard. Palimpsestes: la littéra
Lourenô, A. Apolinario. Ega de Queir
bra: Mar da Palavra, 2005. Print.
. O grande Maia. A recegao imediat
Angelus Novus, 2000. Print.
Pier, John. "Metalepsis." The Living H
http://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/art
may-2014. Web.
Queirós, E$a de. Almanaques e outros
Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 2011. Print.
———. A capital! (Cotnegos duma carr
Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1
. Cartas püblicas. Ed. Ana Teresa P
da Moeda, 2009. Print.
. A cidade e as serras. 1901. Lisbon: L
. O crime do padre Amaro. 1880. Ed
eds. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa
. A ilustre Casa de Ramires.1900. E
Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1999. Print
. Os Maias. Episódios da vida romanti
. O mandarim. 1880. Ed. Beatriz Be
Moeda, 1992. Print.
. O primo Basüio. 1878. Lisbon: Livro
. Textos de imprensa. I (da Gazeta de
Peixinho. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional
. Textos de imprensa. IV (da Gazet
Cavalcante. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacion
Reis, Carlos. Estudos queirosianos. Ensa
Preseni;a, 1999.
. "Figura^öes da personagem realis
Alencar." O século do romance. Realism
A. Apolinario Lourenô et. al. Coimb
91-110. Print.
. Pessoas de livro. Estudos sobre a pe
dade de Coimbra, 2014. Print.
Reis, Carlos and Maria do Rosario Milh
espólio de Ega de Queirós. Lisbon: Im
Ryan, Marie-Laure. "Narration in Va
tology. Ed. Peter Hühn et al. http://
various-media. Web.
Silva, Garcez da. A pintura na obra de Ega de Queiroz. Lisbon: Caminho, 1986. Print.
Sousa, Frank F. O segredo de Ega. Ideologia e ambiguidade em A cidade e as serras.
Lisbon: Cosmos, 1996. Print.

Eça de Queirós and The Character As Fiction

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Eça de Queirós and The Character As Fiction

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Eça de Queirós and the Character as Fiction

Author(s): Carlos Reis

Trata-se aqui de analisar a presenga de personagens liter arias de outros

io Luso-Brazilian Review 53:2

da sobrevida da personagem e afungao desempenhada pela metalepse na

be "invaded" by beings (characters) who penetrate its boundaries without

—Mas isso é o enredo da Eugénia Grandet, Sebastiao! Estas-me a contar

with a novel or a fictional character (or to a character from another fiction,

[Batista] era hoje um homem de cinquenta anos, desempenado, robusto, com

From this frame of reference, being a character is no negligible aspect of the

metafictional figurations is a certain logic of the character demanded by the

Baronesa de Pedralva). O duque, um ca<;ador obtuso e brutal com avós até

Padilhao (and therefore Pinheiro Chagas as well) seems to be correct: the

E depois, nem o consolava a certeza de construir obra forte. Esses Tructesin

afonsinos, de sólida substantia histórica? . . . Talvez apenas ocos titeres, mal

O psicólogo emudecera, colhido, trespassado! Marizac era uma tao su

Duprat, Armando, Prudência, achava o sabor poético de uma vida intensa

If Joao da Ega goes as Mephistopheles, Raquel Cohen chooses, naturally,

Pela escada acima, duas penas negras de galo ondearam, um manto es

Carlos apenas póde dizer: bravo!—o aspeto do Ega emudeceu-o. Ape

Here Joao da Ega bears an even closer resemblance to the Mephistopheles

In the end, after a great deal of exaggerated exaltation and "

de cavaleiro da Renascen<pa, devia ornar a sala pelo menos com um soberbo

—É um caso de amor infeliz, sr." D. Felicidade—disse Juliao. —É a

The scene makes an impression on Dona Felicidade, reigniting her sexual

In chapter five of Os Maias, in reference to one of Carlos da Maia's past

Originally presented in Portuguese as "E$a de Queirós e a personagem como fic^ao."

13. In "Narration in Various Media," in The Living Handbook ofNarratology, Marie

Carvalho, Mario Vieira de. Ega de Qu

You might also like