O Barão de Lavos (Patologia Social)
(Baron of Lavos (Social Pathology)) Book not yet available in English
Summary:
The Baron of Lavos, which we have now included in this collection, was probably the first book written in Portuguese to deal with the theme of homosexuality. The baron, a victim of a congenital desire for the feminine and the masculine, living in luxury and opulence, ends up plunged into the greatest of social miseries, a theme that Abel Botelho deals with in a very realistic and extremely cruel way. The writer Abel Acácio de Almeida Botelho was born in Tabuaço (Viseu district) in 1855 and died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1917. He embraced military life from an early age, but after the proclamation of the Republic, he entered political and diplomatic life. A writer of remarkable talent, he nevertheless allowed himself to be dragged down by excessive audacity of language and observation in many of his works. He was the representative of the naturalism or exaggerated realism of his time.
Edited by: Biblioteca Lúcio Craveiro da Silva
Comment:
The novel was published in 1891 and immediately caused a great scandal for taking homosexuality as its main theme, something considered extremely inelegant in literature at the time. The sales success led to the publication of a second edition, corrected, as early as 1898, by the Chaudron Bookstore. This novel by Botelho, the first volume of the “Social Pathology” series, is considered one of the first Portuguese novels with LGBTQ+ themes, after the surprising “The Lesbian Games or The Loves of Joaninha”, by Arsénio de Chatenay, published in 1877.