Unlike the first book I wrote about, which was right up to date, this work by Almeida Garrett, dating from 1846, is a Portuguese classic.
I'm not going to pretend this is a rigorous, academic exercise... this post is just a little taster for anyone who's interesting in finding out a bit more about the book. Oxford-standard literary essay it is not.
So, why did I read this? Well, partly because at one stage it was on the list for the book club I went to a couple of times (although it was later taken off). And partly because I read it in English before I went to be interviewed at Oxford (way back in 2011, unbelievable though that seems!) and wanted to see what the real thing is like.
Funnily enough, I didn't really remember much of the plotline, or anything, before starting to read, and it only came back to me very gradually. I wouldn't like to say it's not memorable - it really should be, because the structure of the book and many other aspects are deliberately odd. Maybe I just read it too quickly the first time...
One example of oddness - Viagens doesn't fit neatly into a particular genre. It's not a 'proper novel', but it's not non-fiction either. And the curious reader might well wonder whether the first-person narrator is a portrayal of Garrett himself, or a loose projection of Garrett, or someone completely different. We know Garrett did make the journey described, from Lisbon to Santarém, but at least some of the narrator's experience in Viagens is definitely fiction.
The narrator, whoever he really is, is apparently unable to concentrate on anything for very long, until he gets involved in the very long story of Joaninha. This sub-plot is the only coherent narrative in the whole work - the rest is the narrator's reflections on the state of the world, loosely tied to what he sees and experiences in his journey. It's quite intriguing, in its own way - mainly relating to the Portuguese Liberal Wars (civil war), full of personal (melo-)drama and romance. Garrett was surely contrasting the romanticism of this part with the realism of the rest of Viagens, although, of course, this division is a simplification. Good 19th century stuff.
As another example of the unexpectedness of Viagens, the Joaninha story-within-a-story isn't told simply from beginning to end. Although much of the middle of the novel is given over to the subplot, the narrator interrupts it more and more frequently nearer the end, until the two separate threads are completely interwoven. I could try and explain, but it might ruin things for you, if you ever read it...
At its time, Viagens was ground-breaking for its use of the Portuguese language - rather than sticking to the literary, 'high' style, Garrett mixes in plenty of vernacular speech, which reflects how people actually spoke, rather than how it was considered Portuguese 'should' be written. It's a bit of a strange connection to make, but you could compare it to William Wordsworth writing in the 'real language of men'.
So, it had quite a lot of influence in its day, and still retains a lot of interest for the modern reader, giving you a great insight into 19th century Portugal. What's not to like?
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