Who was Fernando Pessoa:

Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (1888-1935) was born in Lisbon. He was a Portuguese poet, philosopher and writer. He is the most universal Portuguese poet, considered one of the best writers of the western civilization.

The maximum exponent of the creative genius of Fernando Pessoa is embodied in his heteronyms, Ricardo Reis, Álvaro de Campos, Alberto Caeiro and Bernardo Soares, who endowed with their own personality, publishing their poetry and imagining them to the smallest detail. This fact is one of the main reasons of the great interest in his work.

Fernando Pessoa is also an icon of Lisbon. His statue in Largo do Chiado, where he frequented the literary gathering of Café “A Brasileira”, and his favorite coffee shop “Martinho da Arcada”, in Praça do Comércio, are mandatory places to visit.

Fernando pessoa (1888 – 1935)

Who was Sophia Mello Breyner:

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (Porto, November 6, 1919 – Lisbon, July 2, 2004) was an award-winning Portuguese poet and writer. In 2014, she was unanimously chosen by the Parliament with National Pantheon honours, the second woman to be so honored, after Amália Rodrigues.

Sophia, as she is often referred to in Portugal, was born in Porto to a wealthy aristocratic family. She inherited the surname ‘Andresen’ from her paternal great grandfather, a Danish merchant. She received a strict Catholic upbringing, and was to remain a fervent believer until the end of her life. After spending her childhood in Porto she moved to Lisbon, where she attended the Universidade de Lisboa. As a student, she was activelly involved in Catholic movements. Politically, she defended constitutional monarchy and openly criticized Salazar’s dictatorship.

Her poetry has been translated into English by Ruth Fainlight, Richard Zenith and most recently by Colin Rorrison with Margaret Jull Costa, as well as into most languages in the world.

Sophia Mello Breyner (1888 – 1935)

Who was Eça de Queiroz:

José Maria Eça de Queirós (1845/1900), was born in Póvoa de Varzim and died in Paris. He is considered one of the greatest novelists of all Portuguese literature, the first and foremost Portuguese realist writer and as a profound reformer of the Portuguese literary prose.

Coimbra University was where he studied law and also where he got to know the writer Antero de Quental and other outstanding figures of the “Realism” movement generation in Portugal. Known as the creator of the modern Portuguese novel, we can distinguished three aesthetic phases: the first one, of romantic influence, includes later texts present in “Prosas Barbaras” and “Mistério da Estrada de Sintra”; the second one, an affirmation of Realism, started with the participation in the Conferencias do Casino Lisbonense and is fully manifested in the novels “O Primo Basilio” and “O Crime do Padre Amaro”; and the third one, of overcoming Realism-Naturalism, where he tests the literary style’s limits, in “Os Maias”, “A Ilustre Casa de Ramires” and “As Cidades e as Serras”.

Eça de Queirós also worked as a lawyer and journalist in Lisbon. He was successively pointed as Portugal’s consul in Havana, Newcastle, Bristol and Paris, where he remained until his death in 1900. It was during his stay in England that he wrote the most significant part of his work, this detachment allowed him to have a more objective and critical point of view regarding Portuguese society, especially the upper classes. “O Crime do Padre Amaro” and “O Primo Basilio” are two of his most controverssial works at the time and were condemned by the Catholic Church.

Eça de Queiroz (1845 – 1900)

Who was Florbela Espanca:

Florbela de Alma Conceição Espanca (1894/1930) was born in Vila Viçosa, Alentejo and died in Matosinhos. Florbela Espanca will single handedly revitelize the Sonnet, in a way that has not been done so triumphantly since Camões. In the Larousse encyclopedia, this poet is defined as “Parnassian, with an intense female erotic accent, unprecedented in Portuguese literature. Her lyrical work begun in 1919 with O Livro das Mágoas, which anticipates the later movement of women’s literary emancipation, expressing an immense female frustration facing oppressive patriarchal traditions”.

She studied in Évora, finishing high school and enrolling in Lisbon’s University Faculty of Law. It is at this time that she publishes her first poems. Her poetry is dense and bitter, with egocentric laughter, almost always love themed, disconnected from humanistic preoccupations or social content. It was not part of any literary movement, although her style connects to romantic poets.

Florbela committed suicide with the use of barbiturates, on the day of her birthday and on the eve of her masterpiece’s publication “Charneca em Flor”, which was only published in January 1931. She was only publicly know after her death.

Florbela Espanca’s body lies in Vila Viçosa’s cemetery, her homeland. In 1949 Lisbon’s City Council honored her, naming a street after her name near Avenida da Igreja in Alvalade.

Florbela Espanca (1894 – 1930)