Abstract
As its title suggests, recalling that of a French counterpart erroneously supposed at one time to have been its model, O Crime do Padre Amaro deals with a crime — the immoral behavior of a clergyman with a young girl.1 Eça de Queiroz’s novel involves more, however, than the misconduct of a single member of the clergy or the implied thesis that some men are not fit by temperament to become priests. The work, viewed in a larger perspective, shows the general corruption of Portuguese priesthood in the second half of the nineteenth century in a society where material values have substantially undermined spiritual ones and where the appearance of religion, the rituals of religious observance, have come to mean more than the intrinsic, immaterial dedication to the faith.
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References
Eça de Queiroz himself discredits, in his prefatory Nota to the second book edition of O Crime do Padre Amaro, published in 1880, the charge that he copied his work from Zola’s La Faute de l’Abbé Mouret. Unfortunately, Eça’s convincing defense of the originality of his novel has led to a new error concerning the date of its initial publication: the Portuguese writer mistakenly refers to his novel’s being presented to the public for the first time in 1874 when he means in reality 1875, the date of its earliest appearance in the fascicules of the Revista Ocidental. Eça’s slip of memory is perhaps responsible for the error committed by his translator, Nan Flanagan, who gives O Crime do Padre Amaro (translated as The Sin of Father Amaro, London, 1962) as being published for the first time in 1874. She seems also to be unaware of the fact that the edition of the novel which she has translated — and whose chapter division she chooses to alter after the fourth chapter — is actually that of 1880. O Crime do Padre Amaro appeared in three versions: that of the Revista Ocidental in 1875, that of the first book edition in 1876, and that, finally, of the definitive book edition in 1880. For a comparison of the different versions, see Eça de Queiroz, O Crime do Padre Amaro, edição crítica organizada por Helena Cidade Moura, baseada nas versões de 1875, 1876, 1888, 2 vols. (Porto: Lello & Irmão 1964) ;
Moura, “Metamófoses dum romance,” Colóquio, No. 16 (1961), pp. 53–55;
Moura, “Três versões d’O Crime do Padre Amaro,” Ocidente, LXI (1961), pp. 271–283;
José Pereira Tavares, O Crime do Padre Amaro (Aveiro: Gráfica Aveirense 1943)
João Gaspar Simões, Eça de Queiroz: 0 Homem e 0 Artista, (Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro: Ediçoẽs Dois Mundos, 1945), pp. 339–368;
Simões, Eça de Queirós (Lisbon: Editora Arcádia, 1961), pp. 158–166.
Eça is not alone in this demonstration, of course, at a time when Naturalism, Positivism, and Anticlericalism are all dominant. Galdós in Doña Perfecta, Gloria, and La Familia de León Roch maintains the same attitude. So does, needless to say, Zola.
José Maria Eça de Queiroz, Obras (Lisbon: Edição de Centenário, 1946–1948), I, p. 115.
Eça de Queiroz, Obras, p. 337.
See Viana Moog, Eça de Queiroz e o Século XIX, 3rd ed. (Porto Alegre: Livraria do Globo, 1943), pp. 240–248.
For Eça’s true motives, see Queiroz, Obras, XIII, p. 362; Luís de Oliveira Guimarães, As mulheres na obra de Eça de Queirós (Lisbon: Livraria Clássica Editora, 1943), p. 34;
Álvaro Lins, História literária de Eça de Queiroz (Rio de Janeiro: J. Olympio, 1939), p. 101. For a broader discussion of Eça’s point of view on the social corruption of his times, consult António José Saraiva, As ideias de Eça de Queiroz (Lisbon: Centro Bibliográfico, 1946), pp. 92–108.
Eça de Queiroz, Obras, pp. 577–578.
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© 1968 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Araujo, N. (1968). The Practice and Pretense of Religion in Eça de Queiroz’s “O Crime do Padre Amaro”. In: Cartier, N.R. (eds) Aquila. Aquila, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9822-6_1
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