Portuguese Modernism

In 1915 two issues of a review called Orpheu were enough to cause scandal in Lisbon and open Portuguese modernity. Pessoa wrote there under several names, each endowed with a biography, a style and a philosophy, and left at his death a trunk of twenty-seven thousand sheets from which the Book of Disquiet would come. Sá-Carneiro, dead at twenty-five in Paris, wrote doubling and anguish; Florbela Espanca gave the sonnet a woman's desire that the age would not accept. Recognition came decades later.

works 5

• NovelLúcio's ConfessionA Confissão de LúcioMário de Sá-Carneiro · 1914A man released from prison writes to declare his innocence, and warns in advance that he will not be believed.Literature
• PoetryBook of SorrowsLivro de MágoasFlorbela Espanca · 1919A young poet speaks of sorrow and saudade in the decadent tone of the end of the century.Literature
• PoetryAs Encruzilhadas de DeusJosé Régio · 1936not translated into EnglishA poet stands between God and his own doubts, and makes of it a book of cries and confidences.Literature
• NovelNome de GuerraJosé de Almada Negreiros · 1938not translated into EnglishA young provincial sent to Lisbon to learn about life becomes attached to a prostitute who knows that they are not made for each other.Literature
• DiaryThe Book of DisquietLivro do DesassossegoFernando Pessoa · 1982An assistant bookkeeper in Lisbon keeps a diary in which nothing happens, and which he will never finish.Literature