A Portuguese family

In 1885, aged forty, Eça married Dona Emilia de Castro Pamplona, the sister of his travelling companion to the East. The pair seemed ill-matched: Emilia was twenty-eight [even back then not quite a 'spinster'], handsome and statuesque, belonging to the most exclusive aristocratic circles. She had been rejected by a former fiancé : none other than Soveral. Queiroz was well known as a writer, but also a commoner with a blotch on his origins. Both were rather impecunious and both extremely shy. But they eventually made an exemplary couple. Emilia was intelligent, well read and spoke perfect English and French, and she had a good sense of humour. Their private correspondence was published a few years ago, revealing infinite tenderness and great harmony. Under the influence of his wife, and to please her, Queiroz wrote small pieces, not uninteresting, about the Saints, confirming that his deeply-rooted hate for a corrupt clergy reflected no kind of atheism or aggressiveness against the fundamentals of Christianism.

In 1888, Queiroz published Os Maia (The Maias) with the modest sub-title: 'History of a Portuguese Family'. Os Maia is a splendid family saga, an ample social fresco and an immense love story. The psychological spectres of the author appear: the fatality of incest, the ill-behaviour of mothers, the weakness of fathers, the nobility of grandfathers, the solidity of friends. The delicacy and precision of descriptive passages of a time and a world disappeared to-day, are still immediate to the modern reader as are the eternal types, perfectly observed and skilfully sketched.

In the same year, 1888, thanks to his court connections, José-Maria managed to be posted in to Paris as the Consul-General. We know that he did pull strings, because the former holder of the job, Viscount Faria, did not leave gracefully, and his wife had to be expelled by the French police from the consular premises after a highly comical extravaganza. The Queirozes were to stay in Paris until 1900. Their four children were educated in French private schools. Through their correspondence, and the testimonials of their friends and children, we can easily picture their uneventful life.

José-Maria undertook the business of the Consulate with characteristical dignity, impecuniousness, and solidarity with the poorest immigrants. Emilia raised their four children and despaired that she could ever balance her household finances. Tradesmen and servants, in the beaux quartiers of Paris, were adept at taking advantage of the candid and noble foreign lady. Their house was the meeting point of a small group of friends, Portuguese or Brazilian travellers, discussing politics and literature. José Maria wrote correspondence for the Brazilian newspapers; he attempted to start a literary review, and lost whatever money he had been able to spare. The scope of his reading was wider than ever. He noticed and admired the stories of a youthful Kipling. The French themselves were a disappointment to him. As a young man, he had 'adored' Victor Hugo and Flaubert and tried to emulate Gérard de Nerval. France in the 1890s was too grossly bourgeois, arrogant, and futile. He was deeply shocked by the injustice of the Dreyfus Case and wrote to a friend, in 1899, those terrible words: 'In no other nation could be found such a great crowd of people to desire unanimously the condemnation of an innocent, knowing him to be innocent, and turn their back on his long agony.'

In 1897 Queiroz published a new romance, The Illustrious House of Ramires, in which he underlined the contrast between the weakened landed nobility and a climbing bourgeoisie, industrious though mediocre. By marrying into the high aristocracy, he came to understand characters that he had previously known only superficially. This short novel may be the most exact portrait of grassroots Portugal. It will surprise and disappoint those readers who only expect from Eça de Queiroz biting satire, acerbic criticism and teeth-grinding blasphemy. It is, however, a perfect illustration of his life-long commitment to use reality in art to serve the True, the Good and the Beautiful.