ABEL BOTELHO’S O LIVRO DE ALDA. DEGENERATION E SOCIAL PATHOLOGY IN FIN-DE-SIÈCLE PORTUGAL

Abstract

The article proposes an analysis of the novel O livro de Alda (1895) by the Portuguese writer Abel Botelho based on the concept of degeneration as theorised by Bénédict-Augustin Morel. From this perspective, the letters through which the narrative in Botelho’s work develops seem to concentrate the ideological assumptions of the entire series Patologia social, representing, through the figure of Alda, the degrading Nineteenth-century vision of women and criticising, at the same time, the decadence and moral corruption of fin-de-siècle Portuguese society. Keywords