The Relic

Rating:
Summary: Correction
Review: Actually, I just want to correct the first on-line review about Eça's The Relic. That review or whatever that is does NOT refer to Eça's book. There must have been some kind of mistake. There are no brothers, haunted museums or anything of that sort in Eça's Relic which I, as a Portuguese enthusiastic reader and...professor of Literature, have read several times and studied/taught in College. Eça is unique, his writing equals only Saramago and Pessoa and he is the best possible approach to the Portuguese masterpieces of literature. I discovered his work when I was in my early teens and that decided my career. Please try to find a good translation of The Maias, Cousin Bazilio, The Sin of Father Amaro, The Illustrious House of Ramires or The City and the Mountain and bring them to the american public. I know some good translations by Carcanet Press in Manchester, UK. But please,correct your on-line review!

Rating:
Summary: Correction
Review: Actually, I just want to correct the first on-line review about Eça's The Relic. That review or whatever that is does NOT refer to Eça's book. There must have been some kind of mistake. There are no brothers, haunted museums or anything of that sort in Eça's Relic which I, as a Portuguese enthusiastic reader and...professor of Literature, have read several times and studied/taught in College. Eça is unique, his writing equals only Saramago and Pessoa and he is the best possible approach to the Portuguese masterpieces of literature. I discovered his work when I was in my early teens and that decided my career. Please try to find a good translation of The Maias, Cousin Bazilio, The Sin of Father Amaro, The Illustrious House of Ramires or The City and the Mountain and bring them to the american public. I know some good translations by Carcanet Press in Manchester, UK. But please,correct your on-line review!

Rating:
Summary: Filled with a lot of Horror and suspense
Review: It is closing time at a New York Museum. Two brothers are lost in the long corridors and hallways of the big museum. They find a stair case leading to the dark subbasement. One boy pleads not to go down, but the other says that they are going. Then they go down, not knowing they will never return. This is a very good and very intense. If you are into horror and suspense, read it! It is not for the squemish, and it is very long read. It is told in such detail that you feel you are in the story. The movie and book have no compare, the book rocks, and is the best read i ever read!

Rating:
Summary: Sarcastic and vivid
Review: One has to be very cautious when reviewing this book, since there is much to give away about the plot and then ruin the reading for people. Teodorico Raposo becomes orphan as a child and is sent to Lisbon to live with his aunt, a terrible, unlikable and tyrannical religious fanatic who terrorizes everybody around her with her puritanism and obsessions. But she happens to be very rich and Teodorico her only relative alive. So he has to pretend ALL the time that he is just as fanatic as her aunt, while living a double life of pleasure and sin. One day, his aunt decides that before dying someone has to go to the Holy Land and get her some authentic relic of Jesus' times. And guess who she chooses to go there.
So Teodorico embarks towards Egypt and Palestine in what becomes a very funny adventure alongside his companion, the wise scholar Dr. Topsius. To go further would, as I said, risk giving away parts of the plot which are really unexpected and good. Suffice it to say that the travel includes a wonderful, colorful and vivid narration of the day when Jesus was crucified. It turned out to be a very enjoyable book by one of the best writers of the XIX century.