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This book is called Love of Perdition. Its subtitle presents it as the memories of a family. It is a novel by Camilo Castelo Branco. This edition was published in Porto in 1862.
An old question appears before the story. Does any love story end without tears of disaster or regret? The book therefore joins love to loss from its very first page.
After the title page, the author addresses Fontes Pereira de Melo. He dedicates the novel to him as a sign of gratitude. The author signs the dedication in the Relação prison in Porto. The date is 26 September 1861.
The author knows that a minister has little time. He also jokes about the idea that ministers do not read novels. He remembers a politician who spoke brilliantly about railways. That evening, he found the same man reading a novel. The little story shows the author's irony.
He admits that the book may not deserve the minister's time. Even so, he asks him to accept it because of his gratitude. His false modesty is also a quiet criticism. This author does not speak like a distant chronicler.
In the preface, the narrator turns to another document. In prison, he consulted old books in the Relação archive. One of those books recorded the prisoners between 1803 and 1805. On page 232, he found the record of Simão António Botelho.
The document says that Simão was unmarried and a student in Coimbra. He had been born in Lisbon and was living in Viseu when he was arrested. The record gives his age as eighteen. It also identifies his parents, Domingos Botelho and Rita Preciosa.
Simão was of average height, with a round face, brown eyes and black hair. He wore a blue jacket, a patterned waistcoat and grey trousers. These cold details make the young man seem present before us.
In the margin of the record there was an even shorter notice. Simão left for India on 17 March 1807. The reader therefore learns of a future loss before learning its cause.
The narrator thinks about the pain of exile at the age of eighteen. At that age, adult life is only just beginning. Simão would pass from his family's arms to the love of a young woman. Yet exile took him away from his homeland, freedom and love. It also separated him from his mother, his sisters and his friends.
The narrator speaks directly to the reader. He believes that a sensitive person may weep over this story. The young man lost everything because of his first great love.
The narrator himself searched for these lines with a clear purpose. He read them with bitterness, respect and also hatred. His anger is directed against a false idea of honour. Some men become cruel in the name of that honour. The narrative will show whether this anger can be forgiven.