8 h 7 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What might the oldest tale of human beginnings reveal to a writer with a sharp eye for human weakness?
In Adam and Eve in Paradise, Eça de Queirós turns toward the familiar figures of the first man and woman. This philosophical romance brings creation, desire and the human condition into view, inviting you to approach an old story with fresh questions.
Eça belongs to the nineteenth-century world of Portuguese realism, where fiction looks closely at society, manners and ordinary habits. His characteristic tools are clear observation, dry wit and irony rather than preaching. Here, the title opens a path toward the questions about faith, nature and progress that occupy his age.
What you’ll discover
- An old story reconsidered Approach Adam and Eve as figures through whom questions of human beginnings remain open.
- Desire and human nature Spend time with a philosophical romance whose concerns reach from creation to the human condition.
- The pleasure of irony Meet an author known for exposing human weakness with dry wit rather than sermons.
- Questions worth lingering over Consider faith, nature and progress against the questioning background of nineteenth-century European thought.
- A Portuguese literary doorway Discover a writer whose clear prose offers an inviting first step into Portuguese literature.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like short tales with irony and heart, from myth and legend to city comedy, and if you enjoy a storyteller who plays with the Bible and Homer.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Adam steps out of the forest into Eden
- Paradise offers danger as well as plenty
- A waiter in London dreams in Greek
- A model wife meets a famous cousin
- Too many gadgets leave Jacinto bored
- Three brothers find gold and a friar offers help
- Macario's love and a nurse's loyalty
- A ladder, a gallows and a ghostly guide
- Ulysses watches the sea and Galilee hears of miracles
Who’s who
- AdamThe first man, hairy and frightened, who leaves the forest for Eden and learns to make spears and fire.
- EveAdam's mate, the keeper of the hearth, who tames animals, sews hides and sows the first seeds.
- KorriscossoA Greek poet working as a London hotel waiter, who writes odes in his own language for the maid Fanny.
- Maria da PiedadeA devoted mother and nurse of an invalid household, who is stirred by her husband's famous cousin.
- JacintoA rich man whose palace is full of machines, and who yawns his way through life until a trip to the mountains.
- MacarioA Lisbon bookkeeper who tells an inn guest the story of his love for a fair-haired girl called Luisa.
- Don Ruy de CárdenasA brave, devout knight of Segovia who rides out one moonlit night in answer to a letter from the woman he loves.
- José MatíasA gentle young man who adores Elisa from his window for ten years without a kiss.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 7 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Adam et Ève au Paradis
A hairy, frightened Adam slides down a tree and faces the dazzling world of Eden.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What if the first man were a hairy, frightened creature who has only just climbed down from a tree? Eça de Queirós, the Portuguese novelist, opens this collection with exactly that, then moves on to a waiter poet, a devoted housewife, a rich man bored by gadgets, a dead man on a gallows and Ulysses on a goddess's island.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Adam steps out of the forest into Eden
The title story retells Genesis with a wink. Adam is no gleaming statue. He is a shaggy, wide-eyed creature who slides down a tree at two in the afternoon on a date the author borrows from Bishop Usserius, and he is terrified of everything.
He wanders to a river, flinches at crocodiles and snakes, and reaches the sea. There two huge sea monsters fight on the sand, and one dies. Adam, hungry, tastes meat for the first time and finds he cannot go back to fruit. At night every beast in Paradise gathers around him as he sleeps, hoping to wipe out this strange new rival. But a white angel with a living sword of fire keeps watch over him.
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What is Adam and Eve in Paradise about?
It is a collection of twelve tales by Eça de Queirós. The title story retells Genesis with humor, and the others range from a London waiter poet to a ghost story, a saint's fable and a retelling of Ulysses on Calypso's island.
Which stories are in the collection?
They include Adam and Eve in Paradise, A Lyrical Poet, At the Mill, Civilization, The Treasure, Fray Genebro, The Peculiarities of a Blonde Girl, The Nurse, The Deceased, José Matías, The Perfection and The Gentle Miracle.
Is Adam and Eve in Paradise a true story?
No. The tales are fiction and fable, though they draw on the Bible, Homer, medieval legend and Portuguese society of the nineteenth century. The title story playfully mixes scripture with early science.
The author
Eça de Queirós
1845–1900 · Portuguese novelist
Eça de Queirós was a Portuguese writer and diplomat, born in Póvoa de Varzim in 1845. He wrote The Crime of Father Amaro (1875), Cousin Bazilio (1878), and The Maias (1888). His diplomatic work took him to Cuba, Britain, and France. He died in Paris in 1900.
More by Eça de Queirós
All 7 booksMore like this
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