7 h 53 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 53 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the happiness you chase becomes the very thing that traps you?
In Tales, Eça de Queirós brings a sharp, playful eye to love, greed and the promise of progress. In The Mandarin, Teodoro is a poor Lisbon clerk who dreams of a larger life and faces a magic bargain. In Civilization, wealthy Jacinto surrounds himself with devices, trusting machines and knowledge to bring the happiness he lacks.
José Matias turns to a gentle lover whose devotion to a woman he adores from afar grows into something stranger. Elsewhere, the humble friar Frei Genebro gives to anyone who asks, whatever the cost. These short stories move between city comforts and simple lives, testing desire, charity and faith with humour that can turn cruel.
What you’ll discover
- A bargain with wealth Follow Teodoro as the chance of sudden riches puts his conscience to the test.
- Progress without peace Enter Jacinto’s crowded home, where the newest devices offer no sure path to contentment.
- Devotion becomes obsession Meet José Matias, whose distant love reveals how desire can grow beyond ordinary happiness.
- Charity at a cost Encounter Frei Genebro’s generosity in a world that does not always reward goodness.
- Wit with a sting Enjoy clear, quick storytelling that punctures grand ideas with small, sharply comic details.
Who will love it
Readers who like short stories with a sharp wit and a soft heart, tales of love gone strange, and fables set in Spain, Greece or Galilee.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Desire unsettles a careful life
- A poet serves other people's dinners
- An unfamiliar tenderness awakens longing
- Every comfort becomes another weight
- Simple pleasures interrupt a comfortable misery
- Shared treasure gives way to suspicion
- Jealousy lays a trap for love
- Perfect love may leave something missing
- Wanting is not the same as happiness
Who’s who
- MacárioA careful Lisbon bookkeeper who defies his uncle, sails to Cape Verde and pays his friend's debts for the sake of a blond girl.
- LuísaThe fair, soft-spoken girl with a Chinese fan who says yes to nearly everything and whom Macário means to marry.
- KorriscossoA Greek poet working as a waiter in London, who annotates Tennyson enthusiastically and loves a maid who loves a policeman.
- Maria da PiedadeA patient wife in a sickroom village who nurses her family and begins to long for a life she reads about.
- JacintoA wealthy man in a palace full of gadgets who yawns at everything and looks for a cure for boredom.
- D. Rui de CardenasA devout and bold young knight of Segovia who is in love with a lady he cannot approach.
- José MatiasA neat, gentle young man whose spiritual adoration for Elisa endures through poverty and personal decline.
- OdysseusThe clever hero, kept on Calypso's perfect island, who longs to return to ordinary mortal life.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Tales in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Tales
by Eça de Queirós · 1902
A bookkeeper in Lisbon watches a window across the street, and a girl with a Chinese fan leans out.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Who wouldn’t admire the advances of this century?”
In short
A bookkeeper sits at his desk in Lisbon, watching a window across the street. A blond girl leans out with a Chinese fan, and his careful life begins to slip.
Tales at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h4 h fast, 6 h slow
- Length
- 71,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1902by Eça de Queirós
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A bookkeeper falls for a window and a fan
The first tale, The Singularities of a Blonde Girl, is told by a traveler who shares an inn room in Minho with a gentle old man called Macário.
In his youth, Macário keeps the accounts in his uncle Francisco's cloth warehouse in Lisbon. He is shy, neat and has never been in love. Then a slender blond girl appears at a window across the street, holding a round Chinese fan with scarlet dragons. Within five days he is mad about her, and his fine English handwriting fills with curls and hooks.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
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Which edition is right for me
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer. Your place follows you, and you can make the type as big as you like.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1902
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 5 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Queirós, Eça de. Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales.
Queirós, E. de. (2026). Tales. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales (Original work published 1902)
Queirós, Eça de. Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales.
@book{queiros2026tales,
author = {Queirós, Eça de},
title = {Tales},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales},
note = {First published 1902}
}
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What is Tales by Eça de Queirós about?
It is a collection of twelve short stories on love, greed, faith and modern fashion. They range from a Lisbon bookkeeper's romance to a bored Odysseus and a retelling of Genesis, each with Eça's ironic and warm voice.
Which stories are in this collection?
The twelve tales are The Singularities of a Blonde Girl, A Lyrical Poet, At the Mill, Civilization, The Treasure, Brother Genebro, Adam and Eve in Paradise, The Nurse, The Dead Man, José Matias, Perfection and The Gentle Miracle.
Are these stories based on true events?
They are fiction, written in the nineteenth century. Some borrow settings and figures from history, legend and scripture, such as Segovia in 1474, Saint Francis, Odysseus and Jesus, but the plots are Eça's own invention.
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.
“Who wouldn’t admire the advances of this century?”
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