zhoozĕˈ mərēˈə āˈsə dĭ kāroozˈ, 1845–1900, Portuguese writer. Trained in law and employed in the foreign service, he became an ardent admirer of French culture. Influenced by both romanticism and Flaubert's naturalism, he is generally considered Portugal's greatest novelist. O crime do Padre Amaro (1876; tr., The Sin of Father Amaro, 1962) and his masterpiece Os Maias (1888; tr., The Maias, 1965) are marked by ironic portrayals of corruption among the clergy and in high society. Characteristic of Eça de Queiroz's writing is sparkling description, profound character analysis, and an absence of the long oratorical sentence traditional in Portuguese prose. Other major novels are The Illustrious Ramires Family (1900, tr. 1968) and The City and the Mountains (1901, tr. 1956). His essays and letters exhibit his urbanity and skeptical humor.

See A. Coleman, Eça de Queiroz and European Realism (1980); study by I. Stern in European Writers: The Romantic Century, ed. by G. Stade (1985).

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

-39365-