Um autor português do século XIX ainda próximo de nós A novelística de Camilo Castelo Branco = A 19th century Portuguese novelist: Camilo Castelo Branco (1825-1890)

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The main purpose of this paper is to present a 19th century Portuguese novelist whose works are not as well known abroad as those of Camões, Pessoa or the Nobel Prize winner Saramago. Nonetheless, he is one of the most representative names of Portuguese Romanticism and, perhaps, one of the most genuine Portuguese writers of all times. Moreover, his works are a precious testimony of Portuguese 19th century’s major historical and social conflicts. Entering Camilo Castelo Branco’s fictional world can, thus, be regarded as one of the best ways of being acquainted with Portuguese history, culture and people. But it’s also a means of having knowledge of an extraordinary story-teller, whose adventurous plots and varied characters representing the worst and the best of mankind attract our attention - anytime, anywhere.
The universality of Camilo’s novels partially lies on the fact that, although events take place in Portugal more than one century ago, although characters live and love, struggle and die in a distant country, at a distant time, they are all brought to life by the powerful words of an author who puts them before the reader’s eyes as if they were real people, living nearby or appearing daily on our TV screens. After all, the romantic technique of the feuilleton, which Camilo and most of his contemporary European fellow-writers mastered, is not that different from contemporary TV episodes writing technique.
Causing strong feelings and emotions, moving readers or spectators into tears or laughter, sympathy or animadversion, hate or compassion, are crucial ingredients to catch any public’s attention and keep it alive. As a journalist and professional writer, Camilo was well aware of it. That’s why the author never shows indifference towards any character or event of the stories he tells. He makes comments and judgments. He addresses the reader as a friend and leads him to share his points of view. He talks passionately in order to make the reader feel passion. He claims he actually met some of the characters, or witnessed some of the events. For that reason, his autobiographical data also play an important role, as well as contemporary socio-political and historical events. Needless to say, passionate love stories between young people from different social or economical backgrounds constitute the central element of this overwhelming universe, in which individual happiness and collective destinies prove to be inseparable.
As a matter of fact, Camilo’s love stories are more than mere love stories because the heroes’ adventures and misfortunes originate in a world where money meant more than human beings and marriage had nothing to do with love. These things are an essential part of the accurate portrayal of Portuguese 19th century bourgeois status that the author depicts in his works, accusing society of being dominated by materialism, prejudice and hypocrisy. Ironically, while suiting the bourgeois readers’ demands, who appreciated adventurous love stories and moral lessons, Camilo went further in his pedagogical labour and pointed his finger at those who made it possible for him to earn a living… And, although he didn’t believe in fiction’s persuasive power, he never stopped praising those things he considered true values: compassion, solidarity, forgiveness, fraternity… in one word, and above all, love. These are the main values his heroes fight for - and also any reader will recognize as the noblest human values.