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CASTELLO BRANCO, CAMILLO, VISCONDE DE...
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See also:CASTELLO See also:BRANCO, CAMILLO, VISCONDE DE CORREIA BOTELHO (1825–1890) , Portuguese novelist, was See also:born out of wedlock and lost his parents in See also:infancy. He spent his See also:early years in a See also:village in Traz-os-Montes. He learnt to love See also:poetry from See also:Camoens and See also:Bocage, while Mendes See also:Pinto gave him a lust for See also:adventure, but he dreamed more than he read, and See also:grew up undisciplined and proud. He studied in See also:Oporto and See also:Coimbra with much irregularity, and since his disdain for the intrigues and miseries of politics in See also:Portugal debarred him from the See also:chance of a See also:government See also:post, he entered the career of letters to gain a livelihood. After a spell of journalistic See also:work in Oporto and See also:Lisbon he proceeded to the Episcopal See also:seminary in the former See also:city with a view of studying for the priesthood, and during this See also:period wrote a number of religious See also:works and translated See also:Chateaubriand. He actually took See also:minor orders, but his restless nature prevented him from following one course for See also:long "and he soon returned to the See also:world, and henceforth kept up a feverish See also:literary activity to the end. He was created a See also:viscount in 1885 in recognition of his services to letters, and when his See also:health finally See also:broke down and he could no longer use his See also:pen, See also:parliament gave him a See also:pension for See also:life. When, having lost his sight, and suffering from chronic See also:nervous disease, he died by his own See also:hand in 1890, it was generally recognized that Portugal had lost" the most See also:national of her See also:modern writers. Apart from his plays and verses, Castello Branco's works may be divided into three sections. The first comprises his romances of the See also:imagination, of which Os mysterios de Lisboa, in the See also:style of See also:Victor See also:Hugo, is a See also:fair example. The second includes his novels of See also:manners, a style of which he was the creator and remained the See also:chief exponent until the See also:appearance of 0 See also:Crime de Padre Amaro of E9a de Queiroz. In these he is partly idealist and partly realist, and describes to perfection the domestic and social life of Portugal in the early See also:part of the 19th See also:century. The third See also:division embraces his writings in the domain of See also:history, See also:biography and literary See also:criticism. Among these may be cited Noites de See also:Lamego, Cousas level e pesadas, Cavar em ruinas, Memorias do Bispo do Grao See also:Para and Bohemia do Espirito. In all, his publications number about two See also:hundred and sixty, belonging to many departments of letters, but he owes his See also:great and lasting reputation to his romances. Notwithstanding the fact that his slender means obliged him to produce very rapidly to the See also:order of publishers, who only paid him from 30 to X6o a See also:book, he never lost his individuality under the pressure. Knowing the life of the See also:people by experience and not from books, he was able to See also:fix in his pages a See also:succession of stronglymarked and national types, such as the brazileiro, the old fidalgo of the See also:north, and the Minho See also:priest, while his lack of See also:personal acquaintance with See also:foreign countries and his relative See also:ignorance of their literatures preserved him from the temptation, so dangerous to a Portuguese, of imitating the classical writers of the larger nations. Among the most notable of his romances are O See also:Romance de un Homem Rico, his favourite, Retrato de Ricardina, Amor de Perdicao, and the magnificent See also:series entitled Novellas do Minho. Many of his novels are autobiographical, like Onde estd a felicidade, Memorias do Carcere and Vinganga. Castello Branco is an admirable See also:story-See also:teller, largely because he was a brilliant See also:improvisatore, but he does not See also:attempt See also:character study. Nothing can exceed the richness of his vocabulary, and no other Portuguese author has shown so profound a knowledge of the popular See also:language. Though nature had endowed him with the poetic temperament, his verses are mediocre, but his best plays are See also:cast in bold lines and contain really dramatic situations, while his comedies are a See also:triumph of the See also:grotesque, with a See also:mordant vein See also:running through them that recalls Gil See also:Vicente. The collected works of Camillo Castello Branco are published by the Companhia Editora of Lisbon, and his most esteemed books have had several See also:editions. The Diccionario Bibliographico Porluguez, vol. ix. p. 7 et seq., contains a lengthy but incomplete See also:list of his publications. See Romance do Romancista, by A. Pimentel, a badly put together but informing biography; also a study on the novelist by J. Pereira de Sampaio in A Geracao Nova (Oporto, 1886) ; Dr Theophilo See also:Braga, As Modernas Ideias na litteratura Portugueza (Oporto, 1892) ; Padre See also:Senna Freitas, Peril de Camillo Castello Branco (S. Paulo, 1887) ; and Paulo See also:Osorio, Camillo, a sua See also:vida, o seu genio, a sua See also:obra (Oporto, 1908). (E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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