"Eça de Queirós is even superior to my beloved master Flaubert."
ÉMILE ZOLA

The stories gathered here, which include many hitherto incomplete or scattered in different publications, are more than evident proof of the thematic versatility of its author, endowed with a unique style and a plural narrative universe that, in the words of João de Melo , have made that «the name of Eça de Queirós is not only a guarantee of a talent that made him the greatest Portuguese writer of all time, but of something even more unusual: of a creator par excellence, of a satanic demiurge and divine. And of a genius ».