O Olho de Vidro

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

26110

Title

O Olho de Vidro

Language

pt

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

Set in 17th-century Portugal, this historical romance follows the tragic fate of Antonio de Sá, a Jewish convert whose forbidden love for a noblewoman leads to imprisonment and execution by the Inquisition. Through the eyes of a grieving physician, the narrative exposes the brutal persecution of conversos, the hypocrisy of religious authorities, and the devastating cost of love against an unforgiving society.

Summary up to 500 words

Set in 17th-century Portugal, Camilo Castelo Branco's *O Olho de Vidro* (The Glass Eye) serves as a harrowing historical critique of the Inquisition's brutality against New Christians—Jewish converts forced to feign Catholicism. The narrative unfolds through the dual perspectives of Francisco Luiz d'Abreu, a medical student in Coimbra, and his friend Antonio de Sá Mourão, a fugitive hunted by religious authorities. Antonio recounts his tragic journey after fleeing Bragança with Maria Cabral, the daughter of a wealthy nobleman. As a New Christian, Antonio is tortured and eventually burned at the stake in 1699, while his wife and child face similar persecution. Years later, the story shifts to an older Francisco, now a doctor living in exile in Holland. He investigates the fate of his friend and the Cabral family, uncovering that Maria survived, fled to Portugal, and lived in hiding until her death in 1718. The novel weaves fictional narrative with authentic historical documents, including Inquisition trial transcripts, to expose the legal mechanisms used to condemn the innocent. It highlights the devastating conflict between personal loyalty and state-enforced orthodoxy. The Inquisition is portrayed not merely as a legal body but as an instrument of terror that destroyed families and erased memories. Through Francisco's quest for truth, the text condemns the era's intolerance, emphasizing that the true victims were those whose humanity was denied by rigid dogma. The title itself, *The Glass Eye*, refers to a character who lost an eye and replaced it with an artificial one, symbolizing the forced blindness of truth under the Inquisition's reign.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

Download URL

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26110.epub.noimages

Local file path

data/epubs/pg26110.epub

Download EPUB

Downloaded at

2026-07-04 13:09 UTC

Categories

• Classics
• Fiction