Teófilo Braga
1843–1924
Biography
Teófilo Braga, whose full name was Joaquim Teófilo Fernandes Braga, was born in Ponta Delgada in the Azores in 1843 and died in Lisbon in 1924. He made his debut in literature in 1859, took his law degree at Coimbra, and in 1872 settled in Lisbon, where he taught literature at the Curso Superior de Letras, the school that later became the faculty of letters of the University of Lisbon. He was a poet, philologist, sociologist, philosopher, essayist and politician, and his career moved from the study of literature into the politics of the new republic.
His writing covered literary history, ethnography, poetry, fiction and philosophy. He collected traditional tales and songs, and that collecting gives his ethnographic work much of its interest. He is also credited with introducing Positivism to Portugal. After the monarchy fell in 1910 he presided over the Provisional Government, and in 1915 he served briefly as President of Portugal, from late May to early October, after the resignation of Manuel de Arriaga.
The book on this site is the second edition, corrected and enlarged, of his Contos Phantasticos, a collection of fantastic tales. It shows a side of him that is less familiar than the politician, the literary historian and the philosopher: his work as a writer of short fiction. The sources below are the place to check the details of his life.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
Contos Phantasticos: segunda edição correcta e ampliada
by Teófilo Braga
A collection of short tales by Teófilo Braga, the scholar who later became president of Portugal, in an enlarged second edition. The stories draw on legend, history and the marvellous.
Summary written by Claude Opus 5.5.