José Valentim Fialho de Almeida

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José Valentim Fialho de Almeida (born May 7, 1857 in Vila de Frades , Alentejo , Portugal , † March 4, 1911 in Cuba , Alentejo, Portugal) was an important Portuguese writer and journalist . In addition to Eça de Queiroz , he was the most important naturalist in Portugal in the 19th century, and one of the most important narrators of Portuguese literature. Fialho de Almeida was one of the leading intellectuals in Portugal of his time.

Fialho de Almeida in the last years of his life

Life

Jose Valentim Fialho de Almeida was born in 1857 in a municipality in the Alentejo in southern Portugal. His father was a teacher. In 1866 the family moved to Lisbon , where he also attended school. At the age of 15 he had to leave the boarding school for economic reasons and became an intern in pharmacy . He began to write his first texts in 1877 and the first of them were published in 1881, in the most popular newspapers in Portugal at the time, such as Correo da Amanha, O Contemporaneo , Os Dois Mundos , O Reporter and others. v. a. In 1879 he enrolled at the university as a medical student specializing in surgery . In 1880 he founded the literary magazine " A Cronica ", in which he wrote articles under the pseudonym "Valentim Demonio ".

In 1892 his first book of his own was published in Porto , the volume with short stories " Contos ", dedicated to Camilo Castelo Branco , whom he adored. In 1893 he married a woman from his native Alentejo, who died after only one year of marriage. He did his medical exam in 1895, but never practiced as a doctor.

He made his most significant contribution to Portuguese literature as the editor of the monthly " Os gatos " from 1889 to 1894, in which many other articles by him appeared. In these 57 glosses and articles he traced a chronicle of Portuguese life, the way people lived.

His big competitor was Jose Maria Eça de Queiros, especially as a naturalist.

His work has not yet been translated into German.

The writer died at the age of 53 in his beloved homeland, the Alentejo.

The Fialho de Almeida plant

His most famous book is " Os pais das uvas " (The Land of Grapes), a story volume published in 1893. This volume contains around 20 stories that can be considered naturalistic and sociological attempts. In it Fialho tried to depict the outcasts, the broken ones of society, true to detail, but he did not shrink from depicting the gruesome, abnormal, disgusting, shocking. This also applies to the other stories that followed. He also showed himself alongside Guerra Junqueiro as a literary champion against the monarchy. Some neologisms were formed in his works , in language he used everything that the power of language had to offer, from popular vocabulary to vulgar language. His struggle was always for the oppressed, the poor of Portuguese society, which made him a great moralist of his country.

personality

The personality of Fialho de Almeida is described as that of a highly sensitive, but failed person. So he studied until his late thirties and could never realize his dream of practicing as a doctor. He once wrote that he was unable to write a novel. As a bohemian , he hung out in various cafes in the capital, such as the famous A Brasileira or Martinho da Arcada , the meeting point of the Lisbon bohemian and literary scene. He was also a very bad student. In a biographical note he once noted that his dream was to live as a simple farmer. Overall, he was a very unsteady and fickle personality.

Works

  • Contos , ( short stories), 1882.
  • Lisboa Galante , short stories , 1890.
  • A Cidade do Vivica , short stories , 1893.
  • Os pais das uvas (The Land of Grapes), short stories , 1893.
  • Gatos , (cats), book with various glosses and articles that appeared between 1889 and 1894, 1894.

literature

  • Knauer's Lexicon of World Literature, Bechtermünz-Verlag, 1999.
  • Major works of Spanish and Portuguese literature, Kindler-Verlag, 1995.