This essay is based on a judgement made by Alfredo Margarido in an essay published in the important issue no. 88 of Colóquio/Letras dedicated to Fernando Pessoa in 1985. Margarido’s essay was published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Pessoa’ death – following the appearance of The Book of Disquiet edited by Jacinto Prado Coelho, with Maria Aliete Galhoz and Teresa Sobral Cunha (1982), and the subsequent 2nd International Congress of Pessoa’s Studies (Nashville, 1983). This paper tries to reconstitute and review a set of critical arguments which, in the Portuguese and Brazilian critical reception, immediately set out to minimize the Book and its Author, presenting them rather as by-products of Pessoa’s work.
