The Relic [Paperback]

Eca De Queiros (Author), Margaret Jull Costa (Translator), Eca De Queiroz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1995

1930. With an introduction by John Garrett Underhill. Novelist and short-story writer, one of the leading intellectuals of the Generation of 1870. Eca de Queiroz introduced naturalism and realism to Portuguese literature. He is considered the major novelist of his generation. The Relic was a picaresque story of religious hypocrisy and truth. Its writing coincided with his marriage and drew on the travels with his wife's brother to Egypt and the Near East. The young Teodorico wants to escape from the chains of his religious home. He visits Jerusalem to acquire a healing relic, soon he is transported back in time with his companion, the German scholar Topsius, and meets Jesus himself, witnessing the crucifixion. He sees the still-living Jesus is smuggled in a grave, and after adventures Teodorico returns back to his own century.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books (April 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781803462
• ISBN-13: 978-0781803465
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,078,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Correction, December 7, 1999

By 

Clara Sarmento (Porto, PORTUGAL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Relic (Dedalus European Classics) (Paperback)

Actually, I just want to correct the first on-line review about Eça's The Relic. That review or whatever that is does NOT refer to Eça's book. There must have been some kind of mistake. There are no brothers, haunted museums or anything of that sort in Eça's Relic which I, as a Portuguese enthusiastic reader and...professor of Literature, have read several times and studied/taught in College. Eça is unique, his writing equals only Saramago and Pessoa and he is the best possible approach to the Portuguese masterpieces of literature. I discovered his work when I was in my early teens and that decided my career. Please try to find a good translation of The Maias, Cousin Bazilio, The Sin of Father Amaro, The Illustrious House of Ramires or The City and the Mountain and bring them to the american public. I know some good translations by Carcanet Press in Manchester, UK. But please,correct your on-line review!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sarcastic and vivid, April 24, 2003

By 

Guillermo Maynez (Mexico, Distrito Federal Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Relic (Paperback)

One has to be very cautious when reviewing this book, since there is much to give away about the plot and then ruin the reading for people. Teodorico Raposo becomes orphan as a child and is sent to Lisbon to live with his aunt, a terrible, unlikable and tyrannical religious fanatic who terrorizes everybody around her with her puritanism and obsessions. But she happens to be very rich and Teodorico her only relative alive. So he has to pretend ALL the time that he is just as fanatic as her aunt, while living a double life of pleasure and sin. One day, his aunt decides that before dying someone has to go to the Holy Land and get her some authentic relic of Jesus' times. And guess who she chooses to go there.
So Teodorico embarks towards Egypt and Palestine in what becomes a very funny adventure alongside his companion, the wise scholar Dr. Topsius. To go further would, as I said, risk giving away parts of the plot which are really unexpected and good. Suffice it to say that the travel includes a wonderful, colorful and vivid narration of the day when Jesus was crucified. It turned out to be a very enjoyable book by one of the best writers of the XIX century.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long live Eça de Queiroz, April 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Relic (Dedalus European Classics) (Paperback)

This is not, in my opinion Eça's best book. But for me everything he wrote has to be "5 stars" rated. it's a shame other books of his are not available on amazon.com. I consider Eça de Queiroz to be the best Portuguese novelist so my suggestion is that you discover his magnificence through those I consider to be his best novels: (I'll translate them but I'm not sure these are their titles) "Cousin Basílio", "The Maias", and "Cousin Basilio" (you can see this is my favourite). If you want to know about the Portuguese society of the late 18th century you'll find it all there. It's not that it had much to be proud of...