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Francisco's Reviews > Os Maias
Os Maias
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It is hard to believe that I've lived this long without reading this classic of Portuguese literature. I don't understand. How can a so called semi-educated person like me go through almost a whole life time not knowing of this book's existence? There are some great reviews of this book here in Goodreads that I would urge you to read to find out what the book is about. What I want to do here is simply say that this book should be read the way Don Quixote or Madame Bovary or War and Peace or any other book that represents the best writing of a particular time, country, culture. (You may want to try the English Translation of by Jul Costa - the translator of Saramago's books). But I'm not suggesting you read Os Maias to find out about Portugal in the late 1800's. I'm suggesting you read it for the beauty of its language, the rhythm of its sentences, the detailed description that will make you see your own world a little better. Most of all read it for what it might do to you, for the way it has of reminding you of your own filled and unfulfilled desires and of recalling the dreams you once had of doing something good and noble and the quiet way Eca de Queiros has of warning you that life can be wasted.
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Reading Progress
February 8, 2014
– Shelved
February 8, 2014
– Shelved as:
to-read
Started Reading
February 17, 2014
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Finished Reading
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[deleted user]
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Feb 17, 2014 10:32AM
One of my best read-books of all-time!!Simply Magnificent..And I love Eça's Books,note this..
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Oh Francisco! Did you enjoy the end? I loved it so much, it's so simple and yet so wise, it made me cry. Did you read it in Portuguese?
I did read it in Portuguese. I probably got only 80 percent of it's beauty but it was worth it. I'll read it in English again soon. The end . . . the end is still with me. A kind of sad and joyous feeling like a yearning for something I know exists but I've somehow missed. Simple and wise are the right words.Thank you for introducing me to this book. I found the book through your review.
All the reviews are tempting, but I don't think I'm up to trying to tackle a nearly-700-paged book in Portuguese. I think I could do it eventually, but I'm afraid I'd miss too many of the subtleties. Sadly, I'm not seeing an English translation available in the US.
Amy wrote: "All the reviews are tempting, but I don't think I'm up to trying to tackle a nearly-700-paged book in Portuguese. I think I could do it eventually, but I'm afraid I'd miss too many of the subtletie..."Hi Amy, I found the English translation on Amazon. Check it out. I want to read the translation too. Take care
http://www.amazon.com/The-Maias-Jos%C...
Francisco wrote: "Amy wrote: "All the reviews are tempting, but I don't think I'm up to trying to tackle a nearly-700-paged book in Portuguese. I think I could do it eventually, but I'm afraid I'd miss too many of t..."I didn't find that one when I looked. I guess I need to brush up on my amazon search skills. That's quite a steep price for a paperback ($20ish). I'm guessing it's worth it though?
I thought it was expensive too. I didn't see any used ones either. It is worth reading whenever you can get it.Take care,
Francisco
Francisco wrote: "I did read it in Portuguese. I probably got only 80 percent of it's beauty but it was worth it. I'll read it in English again soon. The end . . . the end is still with me. A kind of sad and joyous ..."The end is the inevitability of all things :)
Célia wrote: "Francisco wrote: "I did read it in Portuguese. I probably got only 80 percent of it's beauty but it was worth it. I'll read it in English again soon. The end . . . the end is still with me. A kind ...""The end is the inevitability of all things." Those are the words I was looking for . . . but couldn't find. Thank you.
Amy wrote: "Francisco wrote: "Amy wrote: "All the reviews are tempting, but I don't think I'm up to trying to tackle a nearly-700-paged book in Portuguese. I think I could do it eventually, but I'm afraid I'd ..."Amy, I ordered the English translation. If you haven't bought and are willing to wait a month or so, I'll send you the book after I read it.
Oh, that would be nice. No need to rush read because I've got plenty in the meantime and think I might be on a Thomas Hardy kick for a while. Just message me later if you get to the point of sending it.
I'm from Portugal (actually i live in the city were Eça was born :b) and we have to read it in school, i love it, you should read the other books from Eça like (i will say the titles in portuguese because i don't know the titles in english) "O primo basilio", "o crime do padre amaro", "a reliquia", "a cidade e as serras"...
Nuno wrote: "I'm from Portugal (actually i live in the city were Eça was born :b) and we have to read it in school, i love it, you should read the other books from Eça like (i will say the titles in portuguese ..."Thank you Nuno. I will look those up!
