It is a novel of the late nineteenth century written by Júlio Dinis.
It is one of the classics of Portuguese literature, which has as its background a village on the outskirts of Ovar, where the action will take place feuilletonistic narrative involving two loving couples, Margaret and Daniel, Clara and Peter, respectively. What stands out most in this reading are the various characters that revolve around our lovers, the physician John Week, the wealthy farmer John Dornas , the dean Father Antonio and the grocer John's Corner, some of these personalities are decals that swarmed in the countryside. Júlio Dinis masterfully describes the daily life of these large spaces, which were considered healthiest in opposition of the cities and where the social microcosm is omnipresent, everybody speaks about anybody and apparently their life is not enough, so much so that almost at the end of the book we came across a series of events that just do not end in tragedy, because in fact did not take place, the power of rumor and slander almost destroy the reputation of one of the young girl, but all is well that ends well. I disclosure the end for one reason only, it's worth reading this story of a naive Portugal lost in time. Good reading.
