Ferreira, Vergilio

▪ 1997

      Portuguese novelist and essayist (b. Jan. 28, 1916, Melo, Port.—d. March 1, 1996, Sintra, Port.), was a leading literary figure who created extremely sympathetic and eloquent characters—often old men looking back on their lives—who sought the ultimate meaning of human existence. Contrary to the wishes of his family, Ferreira abandoned his religious training for a degree in classics from the University of Coimbra. Thereafter, living under the Fascist-friendly prime ministership of António de Oliveira Salazar, Ferreira taught school. During this period he also wrote several neorealist novels of muted protest against authoritarianism in all its forms. Works of his early phase include Onde tudo foi morrendo (1944), Vagão "J" (1946), and Manhã submersa (1954). Beginning with Mudança (1949)—generally considered Portugal's first existentialist novel—Ferreira's work took on an increasingly introspective and psychological tone. He was much influenced by the work of the French existentialists, especially Jean-Paul Sartre, of whom he wrote an incisive study. Among Ferreira's notable later works are Aparição (1959), Estrela polar (1961), Alegria breve (1965), and Até ao fim (1987), each of which won a national literary prize. Beginning in 1980, his diary was published in series as Conta corrente.

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▪ Portuguese author

Vergílio also spelled  Virgilio  

born Jan. 28, 1916, Melo, Port.

died March 1, 1996, Sintra

      Portuguese teacher and novelist who turned from an early social realism to more experimental and inward-looking forms of the novel.

      Ferreira's literary career began during World War II, and his novels of the 1940s were written in the prevailing social realist (or Neorealist) style that had dominated Portuguese fiction since 1930. Works published during this phase of his career are Onde tudo foi morrendo (1944; “Where All Was Dying”) and Vagão J (1946; “Car J”). Beginning with Mudança (1949; “Change”), however, Ferreira moved away from the social concerns of his earlier fiction and toward an increasingly introspective and existential focus, which continued to prevail in his later works.

      In his psychological novels published after 1950, Ferreira probed the recesses of the human condition in a search for meaning and the process of self-discovery. Of the novels of this period—Manhã submersa (1954; “Submerged Morning”), Aparição (1959; “Apparition”), Cântico final (1959; “Final Song”), Estrela polar (1962; “Polar Star”), Alegria breve (1965; “Brief Joy”), among others—the best known is Aparição, which explores the relationship of a teacher with his students in an almost essayistic manner; lengthy philosophical monologues and dialogues characterize this quasi-existentialist work, which widely influenced contemporary Portuguese fiction.

      In addition to his later novels Para sempre (1983; “Always”) and Até ao fim (1987; “To the End”), Ferreira published a diary, Conta-corrente, 9 vol. (1980–94; “Current Account”).

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