journalistic work in Oporto and Lisbon he proceeded to the Episcopal
seminary in the former city with a view of studying for the priesthood,
and during this period wrote a number of religious works and translated
Chateaubriand. He actually took minor orders, but his restless nature
prevented him from following one course for long and he soon returned to
the world, and henceforth kept up a feverish literary activity to the
end. He was created a viscount in 1885 in recognition of his services to
letters, and when his health finally broke down and he could no longer
use his pen, parliament gave him a pension for life. When, having lost
his sight, and suffering from chronic nervous disease, he died by his
own hand in 1890, it was generally recognized that Portugal had lost the
most national of her modern writers.

Apart from his plays and verses, Castello Branco's works may be divided
into three sections. The first comprises his romances of the
imagination, of which _Os mysterios de Lisboa_, in the style of Victor
Hugo, is a fair example. The second includes his novels of manners, a
style of which he was the creator and remained the chief exponent until
the appearance of _O Crime de Padre Amaro_ of Eca de Queiroz. In these
he is partly idealist and partly realist, and describes to perfection
the domestic and social life of Portugal in the early part of the 19th
century. The third division embraces his writings in the domain of
history, biography and literary criticism. Among these may be cited
_Noites de Lamego_, _Cousas leves e pesadas_, _Cavar em ruinas_,
_Memorias do Bispo do Grao Para_ and _Bohemia do Espirito_.

In all, his publications number about two hundred and sixty, belonging
to many departments of letters, but he owes his great and lasting
reputation to his romances. Notwithstanding the fact that his slender
means obliged him to produce very rapidly to the order of publishers,
who only paid him from L30 to L60 a book, he never lost his
individuality under the pressure. Knowing the life of the people by
experience and not from books, he was able to fix in his pages a
succession of strongly marked and national types, such as the
_brazileiro_, the old _fidalgo_ of the north, and the Minho priest,
while his lack of personal acquaintance with foreign countries and his
relative ignorance of their literatures preserved him from the
temptation, so dangerous to a Portuguese, of imitating the classical
writers of the lar