Salomé e outros poemas.

Coimbra, Livr. Moderna de Augusto d'Oliveira, 1896.. First Edition. 8°, early blue pebbled cloth with original illustrated wrappers bound in. Title-page printed in brown and black. A nicely designed book, well printed on high quality, thick paper. Uncut. In very good to fine condition. (4 ll.), 88 pp., (2 ll.). *** FIRST EDITION of one of Castro's early and important works. A second edition appeared in 1911. The poet, diplomat and university professor Eugénio de Castro (Eugénio de Castro e Almeida, 1869-1944) introduced Symbolism to Portugal; as a young diplomat in Paris he came into contact with the great French symbolist poets, becoming a friend of Jean Moréas and Henri de Régnier. His influence can be seen even on such established Portuguese writers as Guerra Junqueiro, and he undoubtedly paved the way for Camilo Pessanha and Mário Sá Carneiro. Castro's verse ("often so perfect, always so artificial," says Bell, Portuguese Literature p. 337) signaled the return to poetry of careful thought and planning, as opposed to the inspired improvisation of the Romanticists, and led to the cult of "art for art's sake" or "estheticism" that became prominent in Portugal ca. 1925.*** Fonseca, Aditamentos p. 124. On Eugénio de Castro, see also Saraiva & Lopes, História da literatura portuguesa (17th ed., 2001), pp. 479, 669, 914, 975–6, 986 and 998; Grande enciclopedia VI, 235-7; Etalvina Santos in Machado, ed., Dicionário de literatura portuguesa, pp. 119–21; Fernando Guimarães in Biblos, I, 1074–6; and Dicionário cronológico de autores portugueses, III, 85–7. NUC: WU, MH.