O Crime do Padre Amaro

In this controversial work, which generated protests from the Portuguese Catholic Church and, later, from others who accused the author of plagiarism, Eça de Queiroz defined what, for him, would be the main function of Art: an extraordinary tool for social reform. It is through the forbidden love between Amaro, a parish priest newly arrived in the city of Leiria, and the young Amélia, daughter of the woman who hosts him, that the Catholic clergy and their promiscuous influence on domestic relations are criticized. If this book seemed, and could have been, the announced death of a solid literary career, it actually became one of the central texts of Eça de Queiroz's work, proving here, once again, to be a leading voice in denouncing the hypocrisy of Portuguese society's values.