From 1870 to 1970, besides the authors who achieved their own prominence in literary histories, there were some other essential personalities who emerged in the world of fiction: ranging from Júlio Dinis and Fialho de Almeida to Alves Redol and Herberto Helder, there were various styles of realism that endured and differentiated themselves from one another, resulting in a new, multifaceted narrative discourse. In Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet, written between 1913 and 1935, but only published in 1982, there are hints of that differentiation, foreshadowed by António Patrício, José Régio and Irene Lisboa, etc., culminating in Agustina Bessa-Luís and Vergílio Ferreira, and later refined in Augusto Abelaira’s Bolor from 1968, and Mário Dionísio’s Não Há Morte Nem Princípio from 1969, leading to Carlos de Oliveira’s Finisterra in 1978.


Maria Alzira Seixo