Summary
Summary of The City and the Mountains
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Jacinto puts his faith in civilization
Jacinto is a wealthy Portuguese heir raised in Paris, where he lives surrounded by the advantages money can buy. He believes happiness follows knowledge and power: the more a person knows and can do, the happier he must be. To him, civilization supplies both, and the city is its natural home.
Zé Fernandes, his friend and the storyteller, listens with affectionate doubt. His teasing nickname for Jacinto, the Prince of Great Fortune, introduces the question beneath the comedy: can having everything really satisfy a person?
Key idea 2
Every comfort brings another burden
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Key idea 3
Broken machines unsettle a cherished belief
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Key idea 4
Tormes draws Jacinto toward unfamiliar ground
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Key idea 5
Progress cannot supply every human need
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Key idea 6
Friendship keeps the satire gentle
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Key idea 7
Small things test a grand theory
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love warm, funny fiction with a sharp eye for fashion and progress, and anyone drawn to the contrast between city noise and the quiet of the Portuguese countryside.
What this book is
The City and the Mountains is a short Portuguese novel by Eça de Queirós. It grew out of an earlier tale he had written and reworked, and it was published in 1901, after his death in 1900. Eça spent much of his life as a diplomat abroad, in Paris above all, and he knew both the glitter of big cities and the quiet of the Portuguese countryside. The book sets the two against each other with a smile.
The tale is told by Zé Fernandes, a country gentleman, about his friend Jacinto, a Portuguese heir raised in Paris. Jacinto believes that machines, learning and money will make a man happy. You get a comic portrait of a man who owns every gadget of his age, and a gentle test of his belief. Along the way you meet a house full of inventions, a restless mind, and a landscape that does not care about any of them. Let us begin where Zé begins, with the young Jacinto and his theory.
In this summary
- 1A rich young man with a theoryFree
- 2A house built on machines
- 3When the machines begin to fail
- 4The call of Tormes and the mountains
- 5What the book says about progress and nature
- 6A friend's voice and a gentle irony
Key point 1 of 6
A rich young man with a theory
Zé Fernandes first meets Jacinto as a student in Paris. Jacinto was born there to a wealthy Portuguese family whose fortune comes from farms in the Douro region. He has never lived in Portugal. He is clever, polite and rich, and he lives in a grand house at number 202 on the Champs-Élysées.
Jacinto has a theory about happiness, and he states it like a law of science. A man is happier the more he knows and the more he can do. So the wise and powerful man must be the happiest of all. For Jacinto, civilization is the tool that gives a person both knowledge and power, and the city is where civilization lives.
Zé is a plain, humorous man who does not quite believe it. He listens, he laughs a little, and he goes home to Portugal to look after his own land. Years pass. When he returns to Paris, he finds that his friend has put the theory into practice on a grand scale.
The nickname Zé gives him tells you the tone. He calls Jacinto the Prince of Great Fortune, half in admiration and half in teasing. From the first pages the book asks a simple question. Does having everything bring you what you want?
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why does Jacinto initially believe civilization can make people happy?
Right. “For Jacinto, civilization is the tool that gives a person both knowledge and power, and the city is where civilization lives.”Not quite. “For Jacinto, civilization is the tool that gives a person both knowledge and power, and the city is where civilization lives.”
What brings Jacinto to his family's land in Portugal?
Right. “Jacinto's family estate at Tormes, in the mountains of the Douro, needs attention, and there are matters to settle about the family's old home and its dead.”Not quite. “Jacinto's family estate at Tormes, in the mountains of the Douro, needs attention, and there are matters to settle about the family's old home and its dead.”
How does Zé's affection for Jacinto shape the storytelling?
Right. “Because he sees Jacinto with love, the satire never turns cruel.”Not quite. “Because he sees Jacinto with love, the satire never turns cruel.”
Questions about The City and the Mountains
What is The City and the Mountains about?
It tells of Jacinto, a wealthy Portuguese man raised in Paris who believes that science and comfort bring happiness. His friend Zé Fernandes watches him grow bored, then brings him to the mountains of Portugal, where his ideas are tested.
Who is Zé Fernandes in The City and the Mountains?
Zé Fernandes is the narrator and Jacinto's friend. He is a Portuguese country gentleman who lives simply, speaks plainly, and observes his friend's life in Paris and later in the mountains with warmth and humor.
When was The City and the Mountains written and published?
Eça de Queirós worked on it near the end of his life and left it unfinished at his death in 1900. It was published in 1901. It grew from an earlier short tale he had written.
What is the main message of The City and the Mountains?
The book suggests that machines, learning and wealth cannot alone make a person happy. It values simple pleasures, nature and community, while treating the city with humor rather than hatred.
Is The City and the Mountains hard to read?
No. It is a short novel with a clear plot, a friendly narrator and gentle humor. The story is easy to follow.
