Eça de Queirós's novel The Crime of Father Amaro is a lurid satire of
clerical corruption in a town in Portugal (Leira) during the period
before and after the 1871 Paris Commune. At the start, a priest
physically explodes after a fish supper while guests at a birthday
celebration are wildly dancing a polka. Young Father Amaro (whose name
means bitter in Portuguese) arrives in Leira and soon lusts after--and
is lusted after by--budding Amelia, dewy-lipped, devout daughter of Sao
Joaneira who has taken in Father Amaro as a lodger. What ensues is a
secret love affair amidst a host of compelling minor characters: Canon
Dias, glutton and Sao Joaneira's lover; Dona Maria da Assuncao, a
wealthy widow with a roomful of religious images, agog at any hint of
sex; Joao Eduardo, repressed atheist, free-thinker and suitor to Amelia;
Father Brito, the strongest and most stupid priest in the diocese; the
administrator of the municipal council who spies at a neighbor's wife
through binoculars for hours every day. Eça's incisive critique flies
like a shattering mirror, jabbing everything from the hypocrisy of a
rich and powerful Church, to the provincialism of men and women in
Portuguese society of the time, to the ineptness of politics or science
as antidotes to the town's ills. What lurks within Eça's narrative is a
religion of tolerance, wisdom, and equality nearly forgotten. Margaret
Jull Costa has rendered an exquisite translation and provides an
informative introduction to a story that truly spans all ages.
