A down-at-the-heels Satan: a reading exercise of the faustic myth in The Maias, of Eça de Queirós

Abstract

The following essay intends to do a reading exercise of Eça de Queirós’s (1845-1900) The Maias (2001) [1888], that wants to understand how specific characteristics of the faustic myth, just as the longing for the knowledge or the control of one’s own destiny, appear during the novel. Therefore, the essay will be divided into three parts. The first one will show the path trodden by the faustic myth until it arrived in Portugal in the 19th Century, always minding how the faustic myth keeps a solid core at the same time it changes during the trajectory. The second part will present the apparition of the faustic myth in the queirosian works, aside from the one seen in The Maias. Thus, it will be considered that the myth can be found in the chronicle “Mefistófeles”, from Prosas Bárbaras [1903] (1912), written for the feuilleton of the Gazeta de Portugal, from 1866 to 1867; and in the novel Cousin Bazilio (1878). In the same way, it will be pondered about the place of The Maias in the general context of the queirosian works as an integrant of the literary project called “Portuguese Episodes” or “Episodes of the Portuguese Life.” Finally, in the third and last part, it will be done the analyses of the work of predilection, focusing mainly on the first volume of the book, which, as was possible to realize, is the one that brings in its pages the representations that we considered the most pertinent for a reading exercise of the faustic myth. From the queirosian critical fortune, it was extremely important the following books: Izabel Margato’s Tiranias da Modernidade (2008) and Sérgio Nazar David’s O século de Silvestre da Silva, vol.2: estudos queirosianos (2007). Equally, the books Fausto na literatura europeia (1984), edited by João Barrento, and O olhar de Orfeu (2003), edited by Bernadette Bricout, were essential for one’s well-organized thinking about the historical, literary, and philosophical foundations of the faustic myth.