Eça de Queirós in Newcastle and the impact on his Newcastle novels

Author:

Joe Fean

Report:

Newsletter 30

Year:

2026

Subject Matter:

Anglo-Portuguese relations

Excerpt:

José Maria de Eça de Queirós was Portuguese Consul in Newcastle from late December 1874 to April 1879. I want to introduce you to people he knew, and to people he may have known. He was not the only Lusophone in town, as Newcastle then was. In those days it was more a village, in that people of any significance knew one another. I found connections with Newcastle in the novels that Eça wrote there: the third version of The Crime of Father Amaro; Cousin Bazilio; and The Maias, which he had just begun to think about. I suggest that Eça inserted private jokes from his Newcastle experiences in his novels to amuse himself.

The article can be downloaded here.