Eça de Queirós en Egypte

Abstract

This article evokes the journey to Egypt of the great 19th century Portuguese writer Eça de Queirós (1845-1900), where he has been in late 1869 to participate in the celebrations to inaugurate the Suez Canal. The sources of inspiration for the redaction of the young writer’s travel notes are analysed in this work: Théophile Gautier, Maxime du Camp, Gerard de Nerval, Edmond About, among other personalities, but also the Bible. Moreover, the article approaches the description he makes of the Egyptian capital and its surroundings, where monuments of the Pharaonic times are abundant, like the pyramids of Giza. Eça’s impression of Egypt is one of a great tomb: that is the strong image he left us on his travel memories, where one can observe a clear sympathy towards Pharaonic times, in contrast to the times and places of Islamic Egypt, where he travelled. The article enumerates the works of Eça de Queirós where Egypt is present, especially A Relíquia (”The Relic”), novel where Egypt and the Holy Land are the background for the adventures of Teodorico Raposo.