Raul Brandão
Raul Brandão was a Portuguese writer born in 1867 to a family of fishermen. His early life in the impoverished delta area of the Douro River and the fishing village of Leça da Palmeira significantly influenced his literary themes, particularly his concern for the struggles of the underprivileged. Brandão published his first novel, *Impressões e paisagens*, in 1890, but soon after, he pursued a military career at his mother's encouragement. Despite the challenges of military life, he continued to write, contributing to newspapers and eventually gaining recognition for his work. Throughout his career, he explored diverse genres, including drama, short stories, and journalism, achieving acclaim for his powerful emotional expression and philosophical inquiries into human experience. Brandão’s notable works include *Os pescadores* (1924), which reflects on the lives of fishermen. His contributions have earned him a significant place in the modern Portuguese literary canon, and he remains an impactful figure even after his death in 1930.
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Subject Terms
Raul Brandão
Fiction Writer
- Born: March 12, 1867
- Birthplace: Foz do Douro, Portugal
- Died: December 5, 1930
Biography
Born into a family of Portuguese fishermen in 1867, Raul Brandão spent his childhood and adolescence in the delta area of the river Douro and at Leça da Palmeira, a small fishing village. Living in such poverty, Brandão was not educated well. However, his contact with the humble and underprivileged people who struggle with the sea in their daily lives later manifested itself as a social concern and as a theme in his work.
His first novel, Impressões e paisagens (impressions and landscapes), was published in 1890, but its limited success motivated Brandão, at the insistence of his mother, to enroll in the School of the Army in 1891 to begin a military career. Military life was hardly a joy for Brandão, but it allowed him to spend his time doing what he enjoyed most, writing, even if the writing was only to produce bureaucratic documents. Also, his military involvement allowed him to travel with ease, and he managed to continue writing for a few newspapers as a correspondent.
In 1896, Brandão was promoted to second lieutenant and placed in Infantry Regiment 20 in the town of Guimarães, where he met Maria Angelina. They married in March, 1897, and Brandão shared the rest of his life with her. In this period, Brandão dedicated his time to the construction of a house in Nespereira (near Guimarães), which he named Casa do Alto (House on the Hill). In 1906, Brandão traveled to Italy with his wife, and from Genoa they went by train to Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, Milan, and later Switzerland, Paris, and London. In 1910, he was again promoted, this time to captain, and until his retirement in 1911 he divided his time between Guimarães and Lisbon. Since he was not always on call, Brandão published extensively throughout his military tenure and received great acclaim within his lifetime.
Later in life, he had an opportunity to return to his roots and traveled along the entire Portuguese coastline, writing of the fishers’ plight inOs pescadores (1924; the fishermen). Throughout his career, Brandão wrote in a variety of genres, including drama, short stories, novels, diaries, and journalism. A powerful, deeply emotional writer, Raul Brandão occupies a significant place in the history of the modern and contemporary Portuguese novel, and his philosophical questioning of what is tragic about human experience has captivated readers long since his untimely death in 1930.