Os Maias

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Os Maias ("The Maias", Maia being the name of a fictional family) is one of the greatest realist novels of the Portuguese author José Maria Eça de Queirós, also known under the old-fashioned spelling Eça de Queiroz.

As early as 1878, while serving in the Portuguese consulate at Newcastle upon Tyne, Eça had at least given a name to this work and had begun work on it. It was largely written during his later residence in Bristol, and was first published in 1888.

[edit] Film, TV and theatrical adaptations

In 2001 Rede Globo produced their acclaimed adaptation of Os Maias (including some elements from Eça's short novel A Relíquia, "The Relic") as a short soap-opera type serial in 40 chapters, which was shown from Tuesday to Friday during a ten week period. It starred a very select group of Brazilian actors, most of them with long careers on TV, theatre and cinema. The screenplay was adapted by renowned soap opera writer Maria Adelaide Amaral; direction was by Luiz Fernando Carvalho. This is considered one of the most outstanding Globo productions in terms of photographic and overall artistic quality, but failed miserably, with low audiences (often lower than than 9% audience share).

[edit] Other adaptations

Paula Rego painted a series of pastels, inspired by this novel, which have been exhibited in London.