The Glass Eye

Castelo Branco, Camilo, 1825-1890Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 275K words
Chapters: 28

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. O Olho de Vidro by Camilo Castelo Branco. Author: Castelo Branco, Camilo, 1825-1890. Language: Portuguese. Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese. Release Date: Jul 22, 2008

Editor's review

O Olho de Vidro is a work by the nineteenth-century Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco, released here as a free electronic text by Project Gutenberg in Portuguese. Camilo is known for brisk narrative pacing and sharp characterization, and this work will appeal equally to readers curious about the later phase of Portuguese Romantic fiction. The electronic edition is easy to search and compare, and suits language learners using the original for close reading. Note that the Project Gutenberg version is a public-domain electronic text without modern scholarly notes, introduction, or textual apparatus; readers seeking deeper historical context would do well to read it alongside a history of Portuguese literature or a biography of the author. As you read, pay attention to the narrator's tone and the social satire in the dialogue—precisely what makes Camilo's work rewarding.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Portuguese majors who need original-language material for close-reading practice
General readers interested in nineteenth-century Portuguese literature
Scholars studying Camilo Castelo Branco for textual comparison
Readers who habitually read public-domain ebooks and want free access to the original text

Not a good fit for

Readers who do not know Portuguese and read only Chinese translations
Beginners who need detailed notes and scholarly introductions
Readers who prefer contemporary pacing and have limited patience for nineteenth-century narrative

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot, then return to the dialogue and satirical passages to appreciate the author's tone.
Read alongside materials on Portuguese literary history to understand the later Romantic novel style.
Mark unfamiliar expressions and look them up in batches to avoid constantly interrupting the reading rhythm.

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.

FAQ

Is this a Chinese translation?

No. The version released by Project Gutenberg is the original Portuguese text, with no Chinese translation; it is intended for readers with Portuguese reading ability.

Does the electronic edition include notes and an introduction?

The Project Gutenberg version mainly provides the public-domain original text and typically does not include modern scholarly notes, introduction, or textual apparatus. For deeper background, read it alongside a literary history or research materials.

Is it suitable for learning Portuguese?

It can serve as close-reading material in the original, but nineteenth-century literary language differs from modern everyday Portuguese; it is better suited to learners with some foundation, ideally with a dictionary and grammar reference at hand.

Comments

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About the author

Castelo Branco, Camilo, 1825-1890 Author

Camilo Castelo Branco (1825–1890) was a Portuguese novelist whose works number 47 in this collection, showing how prolific he was. His representative works include Amor de Perdição: Memorias d'uma familia, Amor de Salvação, A espada de Alexandre, Salve, Rei!, and A Morgadinha de Val-D'Amores.Entre a Flauta e a Viola. Judging from these titles, his writing centers on themes such as love, religious salvation, history and kingship, and social manners, spanning novels, miscellaneous reflections, and narrative prose. His tone is sentimental and dramatic, and he excels at portraying emotional conflict and the twists of fate. Because public information is limited, details of his life, nationality, and common classification cannot be confirmed, and no existing introduction is available; even so, the scale and thematic range of the works in this collection indicate his standing in Portuguese literature and merit readers' attention to the works themselves.