Alexandre HerculanoEuropa e nós--uma polémica de 1853
Alexandre Herculano de Carvalho e Araújo was a Portuguese novelist and historian. Born of humble stock, his grandfather was a foreman stonemason in the royal employ.Privation had made a man of him, and in his works he proves himself a poet of deep feeling and considerable power of expression. The stirring incidents in the political emancipation of Portugal inspired his muse, and he describes the bitterness of exile, the adventurous expedition to Terceira, the heroic defence of Oporto, and the final combats of liberty. In 1837 he founded the Panorama in imitation of the English Penny Magazine, and there and in Illustraco he published the historical tales which were afterwards collected into Lendas e Narratives; in the same year he became royal librarian at the Ajuda Palace, which enabled him to continue his studies of the past.
