A capital - Eça de Queiroz (1925)

Life is cruel and we die in the end

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I am glad I can read this classic in its original language. I came across this book during a layover in Lisbon. On the contrary to what happens in the bookstores of Germany where I restrict myself to the tinny English books section, in the bookstore of the airport, I had two hours to enjoy the pleasure to explore freely ALL books as available possibilities. It was such a big pleasure! I was checking the classics when I came across "A Capital" (English: "To the Capital") written by the Portuguese author José Maria de Eça de Queirós. I heard about Eça de Queiroz in school during Portuguese literature classes, but, unfortunately, never have I ever read one of his books till now.

The novel was written in the second half of the XIX century when realism was a strong literary movement. The narrative is focused on individuals and daily facts slightly seasoned with the right amount of romanticism. Eça described places and scenes with lyricism while conducting a crudely realistic plot. He wrote a story exactly the way I like: no fantasy, but stark reality! The main character Arthur Covelo is a dreamer. He grew up between books and under the strong influence of his father to become literate. He wished to be a famous poet. He went to university, but his studies were interrupted because he ran out of resources after his dad's death. He moved to the countryside to live on behalf of two old aunts. Nevertheless, his dream to be recognized by his literate talent did not die. Death knocked on his door again, but this time with fortunate news: his dead godfather left him a fat inheritance. He packed part of his money and two manuscripts he wrote to kill the stagnation and held to the capital to invest in his career.

This is a perfect scenario for a successful story. Nowadays, the way Arthur did not let the difficulties put him down would illustrate beautiful examples of success and perseverance used in a lecture of a lifestyle guru. However, the reality is cruel. To be deadly passionate about something is not always enough to succeed. Arthur failed in his intentions: he failed to become a famous writer, he also failed to be politically active, to have a circle of trustees and even to have a girlfriend. Arthur tried, but his attempts were unsuccessful and it was not his fault. In all of his attempts, he came across predatory people and he was not trained to cope with their malicious intentions. Sometimes he was so ridiculously naive that I got annoyed.

This is the story that lifestyle gurus won't tell; they keep on mentioning Steve Jobs or Arnold Schwarzenegger as examples of people that overcame the adversities and succeed. But for each Jobs how many Arthurs are there? Life is not always fair and perseverance does not always work. Sometimes to try harder and harder does not guarantee the achievement of a goal and to keep on trying just make the person even more broken. Arthur gave up and it was the wisest decision he could have taken. I find myself in Arthur when I compare his wishes and efforts to become a recognized poet with my attempts to get my Ph.D. done. Even with all my deepest dedication, I just get slammed back from the academy and I am not even close having all the same self-confidence that Arthur had. Should I give up as he did? I do not know yet. No doubts, it would also be a wise decision, but I am not that smart.

The end of the book is just beautiful, it put things into context. We get fucked all life long and we die in the end. At the end of the day, we are just a bunch of molecules that will be recycled by nature. On the last page, Eça found a poetic way to state this crude reality: he described an ordinary guy in the cemetery profiting from potatoes that grow better in the soil rich in nutrients from the corpses underneath, including Arthur's aunt.

The take-home message I got from the book was: life can be cruel and not all dreams are worth fighting for!



This is a posthumous book published about 20 years after Eça's death and edited by his son António Eça de Queirós. Anyways, whoever wrote this book did a good job

The book got sold on ebay.de in April 2020 in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. A great choice for the quarantine!