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The Tragedy Of The Street Of Flowers
Author(s): Eça de Queiroz (Author), Margaret Jull Costa (Translator)
- Publisher: Dedalus
- Publication Date: 17 Jun. 2009
- Language: English
- Print length: 350 pages
- ISBN-10: 187398264X
- ISBN-13: 9781873982648
Book Description
One night at the theatre, Vitor da Silva, a young law graduate, sees a strikingly beautiful woman. Her name is Genoveva. Originally from Madeira, she has lived for many years in Paris. Her rich French husband has died and she is in Lisbon with a view possibly to settling there. Genoveva, however, is not what she seems. Behind the mutual attraction between her and Vitor lies a terrible secret. ‘A brilliant portrayal of social hypocrisy and sexual fascination.’ The Guardian
Editorial Reviews
Review
Attractive and repellent by turns, Genoveva is a splendid creation who almost achieves stature and sympathy sufficient for tragedy in a novel otherwise suffused with irony and bathos. Through her, Eca anatomises Portuguese society, cutting through its superficial elegance to the inadequacy and insecurity he discerns – with sympathy – underneath. The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers justifies his claim to be numbered among the great European novelists of his day. –Paul Duguid in The Times Literary Supplement
An unexpected bonus: the belated English publication of a work by Portugal’s great but little-known novelist, Eca de Queiroz, who died 100 years ago and bears comparison with Balzac and Flaubert. The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers unrolls a fascinating panorama – colour, animated and satirically observed – of 19th-century Portugal, from its mouldering provincial towns to the flashy falsities of the capital –Peter Kemp in The Sunday times
One of the greatest novelists of the novel’s greatest age, Eca is also amongst the most readable due to his narrative energy, sweeping range and tart sense of humour. –Michael Kemp in The Scotsman
About the Author
Eça de Queiroz(1845-1900) is generally considered Portugal’s greatest ever novelist. Margaret Jull Costa’s impeccable translation of ten of his books into English provides a fitting monument for one of Europe’s greatest 19th-century novelists. Available from Dedalus are:The Mandarin, The Relic, The Illustrious House of Ramires. The Mystery of the Sintra Road, The Crime of Father Amaro, Cousin Bazilio, The Maias, The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers, Alves & Co and The City and the Mountains
