The Relic

1930. With an introduction by John Garrett Underhill. Novelist and short-story writer, one of the leading intellectuals of the Generation of 1870. Eca de Queiroz introduced naturalism and realism to Portuguese literature. He is considered the major novelist of his generation. The Relic was a picaresque story of religious hypocrisy and truth. Its writing coincided with his marriage and drew on the travels with his wife's brother to Egypt and the Near East. The young Teodorico wants to escape from the chains of his religious home. He visits Jerusalem to acquire a healing relic, soon he is transported back in time with his companion, the German scholar Topsius, and meets Jesus himself, witnessing the crucifixion. He sees the still-living Jesus is smuggled in a grave, and after adventures Teodorico returns back to his own century.