Voor mij is er niks leukers dan een roman lezen op de plek waar het zich afspeelt. De Maia’s speelt zich grotendeels af in Lissabon met groot detail voor sfeer en locaties en is daarmee bijzonder geschikt om in Lissabon of Portugal te lezen.

Het genot om met deze familiekroniek uit de 19e eeuw mijn Portugese reis te kleuren voerde de boventoon. Het drama en de intriges van de aristocratie waren daarnaast onverwacht wel spannend en af en toe ontroerend. Het steeds aanwezige racisme en antisemitisme in deze roman stoorde echter wel degelijk. Of het nou een bewuste keuze was van de schrijver of een tijdsbeeld, het zit de moderne leeservaring in de weg wat mij betreft.

Is it me? After 200 pages I still really could not care what happens to these pointless aristocrats so gave up. Every other review says this is a masterpiece, and the translation is really well done, but not for me I am afraid. Sorry to everyone who loves this book.

A long story of a family and the changing of people. Has a humorous ending encapsulating the theme.

'The Maias' by Eça de Queirós is definitely a subtle indictment of the wealthy people of 19th-century Lisbon, Portugal, who inherited their titles and/or wealth. Of course, the novel is really an indictment of all wealthy people who inherit their wealth for generations with none needing to work or do anything except for shallow social performances suitable to their rank and gender.

Every page of this lengthy book is a delight of descriptive high culture and sophistication. Reading about the lives of arty beauty these rich men constantly seek and the genteel self-indulgence of these high-born gentlemen is eye-opening. All of the main male characters live in an upper-class heaven created from pocketbooks filled with their own limitless inherited coins or of others. Huge mansions, huge gardens, beautiful tailoring, and how perfect their male drawing-room manners are is how everyone's measure is taken. All are noble (or pretenders of nobility) generations of sons - all of whom are really dilettantes who acquire educations only for showing off their intellectual passions in Art, politics, and witty gossip. They dispute with each other mostly over beautiful women and from insults disparaging each others' characters over the same behavior they all are engaging in - cuckolding the married among them. Innuendo and slanderous whispers cause much indignation even if true.

Below is a copy of the cover blurb, quite accurate:

"Eca de Queiros was Portugal's greatest nineteenth-century novelist, whose works brilliantly evoke -- and condemn -- the rapidly changing society of his times. The Maias (1888) depicts the declining fortunes of a landowning family over three generations as they are gradually undermined by hypocrisy, complacency, and sexual license. With a vivid, comprehensive portrayal of nineteenth-century Portuguese politics and social history, Eca creates a kind of comedie humaine that, despite the force of its social satire and its damning critique of the Portugal from which he had exiled himself, is a supreme work of humor and irony.The author was a diplomat who traveled widely, and although he claimed to be an apostle of naturalist realism, he reveals with detached irony the lethargy and decadence of his native land. The book initially attracted attention through its account of an incestuous romance, yet today we can see this as just one element in a novel whose compelling story, depth of thought, and compassion make it one of Europe's great literary masterpieces."

The book, overlong especially by today's standards, is a very gentle treatment of the hypocrisies of wealthy Portuguese men. The eponymous Maias are a distinguished landowning family of Portugal. The grandfather, Afonso da Maia, after some misadventures with women when young, settles down with a respectable woman on his massive estate, and they have a child. Unfortunately his son Pedro's wife runs away with another man taking Pedro's daughter with her and leaving behind Pedro's son. Pedro does not handle this well. Afonso raises his grandson Carlos as a gentleman by the standards of Lisbon society. Carlos becomes a doctor but he never really works at establishing his practice. Instead he spends his time with male friends going from event to society event. He has affairs with a lot of women, but eventually he meets one he adores. She is married, but no matter. However, eventually astounding revelations cause a lot of disturbance to the beauty of the relationship. His money and social position could overcome all difficulties - except one.

The women in the book who 'go wrong' or get it wrong - and ffs they are definitely unfairly judged - are punished by the full weight of disapproval of all society, while the men go on extended vacations until things cool down. I believe the author did not approve, but he writes of only what happens from his main male characters' point of view. Wealthy men are safe from permanent social outrage forever and forever throughout Time, gentle reader.

I think for readers interested in period fiction that is an accurate depiction of how a gentrified society was in fact in the nineteenth century, an exposé of an actual certain time and place, this is an interesting literary novel.

I had to reevaluate this book. It felt a bit unfair to give it only 4 stars, when I've loved it so much. 5 stars it is!

Leitura obrigatória no Liceu...mas gostei