The Great Shadow and Other StoriesThese stories further explore the dark and fantastic world of the Portuguese author of Lucio's Confession. In 1916, Sa-Carneiro, the great friend of Fernando Pessoa, committed suicide in Paris; he was only twenty-six years old, but he left behind him an extraordinary body of work, dealing obsessively with the problems of identity, madness and solitude. The stories in this collection all date from the author's time in Paris, and all bristle with "his distaste for the banal and the ordinary, his longing for some supreme experience" (Costa). |
Common terms and phrases
afternoon amongst artist banal barrel organ beautiful bizarre blond body breasts café colour dark death desire disquieting distant doubtless dream Eça de Queiroz ecstasy Etienne everything existence eyes face fact fantasy fear feel flesh Folies Bergère forget garden genius gestures girl glory gold golden happened happy Horácio ideas imagination Inácio felt infinite inside kisses knew light Lisbon live looked Lopes Lord Ronald lover madness magical Manuel Lopes Margaret Jull Costa Mário de Sá-Carneiro marvellous memory merely Moulin Rouge multicoloured mystery naked never night nostalgia once orgasm pain Paris Paulette Paulette's perfumes perhaps picaresque Place Vendôme poems Portuguese possess Professor Antena realised remember Sá-Carneiro secret seemed sense shadow someone soul strange stranger subtle suddenly suffer tenderness terrestrial animal terrible theatre thing thought torment touch tremble triumph vague Viveiros walk whirl whole window woman zinc lozenges