O Mandarim

Eça de Queiroz was born on November 25, 1845 in Póvoa de Varzim and is considered one of the greatest novelists in all of Portuguese literature, the first and main Portuguese realist writer, a profound and insightful renovator of our literary prose.
He entered the Law Course in 1861, in Coimbra, where he lived with many of the future representatives of the Generation of 70. After finishing the course, he founded the newspaper As Farpas, satirical chronicles of inquiry into Portuguese life.
In 1872 he began his diplomatic career, during which he held the position of consul in Havana, Newcastle, Bristol and Paris. It was, therefore, with the critical detachment that the experience of life abroad allowed him to conceive most of his novelistic work, dedicated to the criticism of Portuguese social life and from which O Primo Bazilio, O Crime do Padre Amaro, A Relíquia and Os Maias stand out, the latter considered his masterpiece. He died on August 16, 1900, in Paris.