As Farpas: Chronica Mensal Da Politica, Das Letras E Dos Costumes (1878-02/05)

Before Eça de Queiróz wrote his great novels, he and Ramalho Ortigão unleashed this venomous monthly assault on the Portuguese bourgeoisie. Published in orange pamphlets between 1871 and 1872, each edition sold out within days. The demon Asmodeus grins from the cover, and the contents deliver every bit of his infernal promise: scathing portraits of corrupt politicians, pompous journalists, hypocritical priests, and the suffocating mediocrity of a society that mistook comfort for civilization. The authors dissect the moral bankruptcy hidden beneath Victorian prudery, the absurdity of Romantic literature still dominating Portuguese letters, and the pitiful cage built around women's lives. What makes these essays endure beyond their moment is their surgical precision. They do not merely mock; they expose the mechanisms by which a society convinces itself of its own virtue while drowning in corruption. Reading As Farpas feels less like history and more like an X-ray of any society that has traded enlightenment for expedient lies. It remains essential for anyone who wants to understand not just 1870s Portugal, but the eternal temptation of respectable people to build a comfortable world on foundations of fraud.