Sonnets

New edition of the main sonnets by Florbela Espanca, one of the greatest Portuguese poets, praised by Fernando Pessoa and owner of a powerful, feminine and unique lyric.

Known for her intense, passionate, melancholic, and pseudo-biographical poetry, Florbela's excellence is currently compared to that of her contemporaries Fernando Pessoa and Mário de Sá-Carneiro, although she did not participate in the magazines that sparked so-called Portuguese modernism. Through self-published books, Florbela Espanca brought to poetry a feminine subjectivity that challenged early 20th-century Portuguese social and literary standards. In doing so, she paved the way for later generations of female poets, such as Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Maria Teresa Horta, and Adília Lopes.

For those interested in the work of this great Portuguese writer, here are collected the volumes she published during her lifetime, Livro de Mágoas (Book of Soror Saudade) (1919) and Livro de Soror Saudade (Book of Soror Saudade) (1923), and the posthumous works Charneca em Flor (Charneca in Flor) (1930) and Reliquiae (Reliquiae ) (1931). Furthermore, two critical studies suggest ways to read the poems: the first, from 1950, written by the Portuguese poet, essayist, and critic José Régio, is one of the inaugural essays on Florbela Espanca. The second, by the poet, critic, and professor of Portuguese literature at Unifesp Leonardo Gandolfi, offers a contemporary reading of the great poet.

Florbela Espanca was a dreamer, a creator of new worlds, as Fernando Pessoa said in the poem he dedicated to her. In this edition published by José Olympio, readers have the opportunity to discover verses that have inspired and enchanted so many, for generations.

“Dreamy soul, Twin sister of mine!” — Fernando Pessoa, in the poem “In Memory of Florbela Espanca”