Henry Avila's Reviews > The Maias

When I think of countries in reationship to books there are certain ones which come immediately to mind, France :Les Miserables, Russia:War and Peace, Spain of course: Don Quixote, England:1984, the U.S. :Moby Dick to name a few they may not be everyone's favorites yet their essence tells a lot about the nation that produced them.This a roundabout way of coming to the novel I just finished reading and greatly enjoyed,The Maias (Os Maias) it too belongs in this membership of the elite, I appreciate your patience now lets look inside this classic in my opinion and many others the finest in the history of Portugal...The Maias family is rich, aristocratic and few in numbers headed by Alfonso da Maia and his grandson Carlos a physician more interested in affairs with married women than practicing medicine. His best friend Joao da Ega since university days at Coimbra is likewise a wealthy dilettante having an indulgent mother who gives him money and doesn't ask questions, he a would- be poet and writer. However like Carlos dabbles in literature with unfinished manuscripts between chasing unavailable ladies with jealous husbands. Good ambitions by both recede, they forget about helping their country instead the two go with friends to dinners, parties , visit resort towns, theaters , concerts, travel around Europe and later the world in search of something which won't be found there, happines, looking in all the wrong places. Carlos loves the beautiful Maria Eduarda with a mysterious cloudy past, to be honest rather sordid , numerous lovers and this is not the worst sin, a secret the female is unaware of which will cause much agony and despair to the Maias. The elegant grandfather loves his only close relative, raising him since the notorious scandal culminated in Carlos being abandoned by his parents, one permanently the pretty yet flighty mother Maria Monforte ( yes all Portuguese women are named Maria , I know ) flees to Italy with a lover, Tancredo a handsome, fiery nobleman, he also has no sense. You can imagine the consequences of their betrayal, Pedro the weak husband is devastated. The son is left behind yet the unnamed daughter is taken along, to escape the tedious existence, the mother believes for the exciting life of fun and adventure, the silly woman finds out to her regret this is an illusion the world is not revealed in a romantic novel, harsh reality sets in too late though. Alfonso is truly a gentleman of the old era , Portugal is sinking in a quagmire unable to modernize with the rest of Europe, poor , uneducated masses stumbling by with little hope for the future , darkness will prevail before the light of day and the rays of the Sun bring change to the backward nation, my native land. To reiterate the superb book is undoubtedly at the top of the heap as far as literature in Lusitania is concerned and I wholeheartedly agree, more than another piece of work but a look into the sick soul of the 19th century nation once unrivaled , from one who observed the atmosphere, the decadence , the decay with an eagle eye that never blinked...