Camilo Castelo Branco

Who was Camilo Castelo Branco?

Camilo Ferreira Botelho Castelo-Branco,1st Viscount de Correia Botelho, was a prolific Portuguese writer of the 19th century, having produced over 260 books. His writing is considered original in that it combines the dramatic and sentimental spirit of Romanticism with a highly personal combination of sarcasm, bitterness and dark humour. He is also celebrated for his peculiar wit and anecdotal character, as well as for his turbulent life.

His writing, which is centred in the local and the picturesque and is in a general sense affiliated with the Romantic tradition, is often regarded in contrast to that of Eça de Queiroz – a cosmopolitan dandy and a fervorous proponent of Realism, who was Camilo's literary contemporary in spite of being 20 years younger. In this tension between Camilo and Eça – often dubbed by critics the literary guerrilla – many have interpreted a synthesis of the two great tendencies present in the Portuguese literature of the 19th century.