A Joyful History of Portugal: Reading for the People and for Schools

Chagas, Manuel Pinheiro, 1842-1895Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
213K words
Chapters
22

Tags

Foreign Language Books World History Historical ReappraisalNational EducationPortugalPatriotismLegendary TalesPopular HistoryPopular NarrativeFolk CustomsNational IdentitySchool Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Historia alegre de Portugal: leitura para o povo e para as escolas by ChagasAuthor: Chagas, Manuel Pinheiro, 1842-1895,Language: Portuguese, Class: DP: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Spain, Portugal, Release Date: Jul 13, 2009

Editor's review

This is a popular history of Portugal written in Portuguese, with a subtitle that explicitly addresses "reading for the people and for the schools." The author, Manuel Pinheiro Chagas, was a nineteenth-century Portuguese writer; works of this kind typically recount national history in an accessible, story-like manner so that ordinary readers and students can more easily engage with the historical narrative. Its value lies not in offering the latest conclusions of contemporary scholarship but in showing how nineteenth-century Portuguese writers presented their own history to a broad public: which figures and events they selected, what tone they adopted, and what national sentiments they conveyed. For readers learning Portuguese or studying popular historical works, this is a text of contextual value. It should be read as a product of its time, with caution regarding historical details, while appreciating the readability of its popular narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First browse the table of contents to grasp the chronological framework of Portuguese history, then read the individual stories chapter by chapter.
  2. Read it alongside a contemporary textbook of Portuguese history, noting the selections and biases of nineteenth-century narrative.
  3. Portuguese learners can excerpt vocabulary related to historical figures and events and build thematic word lists.
  4. While reading, distinguish "popular storytelling" from "factual conclusion," and consult reliable sources separately for key events.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22

FAQ

Can I read this book without knowing Portuguese? The original is in Portuguese, so reading it directly is difficult without the language. If you only want to understand the content, look for Chinese or English works on Portuguese history; this book is better suited as Portuguese reading material or as an object of study for popular historical texts.
Is the historical account in this book reliable? It is a nineteenth-century popular history written for the public and schools, and its narrative carries the perspectives and simplifications of its era. It can be used to understand how history was taught at the time, but specific facts should be checked against contemporary scholarship.
Why does the subtitle emphasize "reading for the people and for the schools"? This indicates that the book's aim was popular history and national education, not professional scholarship. Understanding this helps grasp its language style, narrative choices, and emotional tone.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Chagas, Manuel Pinheiro, 1842-1895 Author

Manuel Pinheiro Chagas (1842–1895) was a Portuguese writer. Public information about his life, education and official posts is limited, so no conjecture is offered here. Four of his works are held in the collection, showing considerable variety in subject and genre. Historia alegre de Portugal presents Portuguese history as an accessible reader for the people and for schools, and the word "alegre" in the title suggests a light, humorous tone. Bom-senso e bom-gosto, judging by its title, concerns common sense and good taste and appears to be discursive or critical in nature. A Lenda da Meia-Noite, "The Midnight Legend," indicates his interest in legends and supernatural or fantastic narrative material. Astucias de Namorada, e Um melodrama em Santo Thyrso combines writing on the stratagems of courtship with a melodrama, showing his engagement with dramatic narrative. Overall, his writing balances popular instruction with literary interest, uses plain language, and addresses ordinary readers and schools, giving it some significance in Portuguese popular reading and educational literature.