Cousin Bazilio

I ordered this by chance, to read during a holiday in Lisbon. What a revelation! This is a great late XIX Century novel about bourgeois adultery. It belongs on the same shelf as Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, but it is even closer to Emile Zola's "La Curee." Luiza, a lovely young wife, is led into temptation by her worldly cousin Bazilio, an awful rake. Consequently, Luiza is blackmailed by her ghastly maid Juliana. The struggle between the two women goes ever deeper. I won't betray any more of the plot, except to say that there are many wonderful secondary characters, several hilarious moments (although the whole novel is built toward a tragic ending), and a lot of political subtext. Reading it in Lisbon was a extra-special treat, as I carried the book through the very streets where it takes place. Once I was done with it, I picked up another Queiroz at the Lisbon FNAC for the flight back, translated in French this time. Wow! What a letdown: all choppy and strangely overdone. That proved to me - a contrario - that Margaret Jull Costa did a fantastic job translating Cousin Bazilio. I never was conscious I was reading a translation. I will read more novels by Queiroz, but only if translated by Margaret Jull Costa.