'It was Pessoa that was consuming us': On Lisbon and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

Abstract

'It was Pessoa that was consuming us':On Lisbon and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis Jerónimo Pizarro Abstract One of José Saramago's most celebrated books, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (1984), owes its celebrity, in part, to the dialogue established with Fernando Pessoa, through the figure of the classic heteronym Ricardo Reis, whose biography is silent about the date of his death. What is lacking in many comparative studies between Pessoa and Saramago is a return to the genesis of the 1984 novel, which was written after the great impact that, in the future Portuguese Nobel, the reading of The Book of Disquiet (1982) had. This article is dedicated to discussing the place of Pessoa, and of The Book of Disquiet in particular, in Saramago's work, based on a critical and archival research of materials related to The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis. Resumo Um dos livros mais celebrados de José Saramago, O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis (1984), deve, em parte, a sua celebridade ao diálogo estabelecido com Fernando Pessoa, através da figura do heterónimo clássico Ricardo Reis, cuja biografia é omissa relativamente à data da sua morte. O que falta em muitos estudos de índole comparatista entre Pessoa e Saramago é um regresso à génese do romance de 1984, que foi escrito depois do grande impacto que a leitura do Livro do Desassossego (1982) teve no futuro Nobel português. Este artigo dedica-se a discutir o lugar de Pessoa e, em particular, do Livro, na obra saramaguiana, partido de uma pesquisa crítica e arquivística dos materiais referentes a O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis. Keywords Fernando Pessoa, José Saramago, Portuguese literature, literary archives, novel, The Book of Disquiet, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis Palavras-chave Fernando Pessoa, José Saramago, literatura portuguesa, arquivos literários, romance, Livro do Desassossego, O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis was published in 1984, just after José Saramago had read the most remarkable book by Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, released in 1982, almost fifty years after the death of Pessoa. I believe that Saramago, whose consecration was recent (in this regard, it is worth mentioning the glorious sequence of Manual of Painting and Calligraphy, 1977, Raised from the Ground, 1980, and Baltasar and Blimunda, 1982), when he read this book, was shaken to the core. Suddenly, the writer born in Azinhaga do Ribatejo would have understood that the writer born in Lisbon was much more than a poet. In that posthumous Book, Pessoa was looking to assert himself as a new emperor of the Portuguese language, like Father António Vieira whom Pessoa honoured as such,1 not without dreaming that the same epithet could one day apply to himself, making him a Super-Vieira.2 In the end, Pessoa wanted The Book to be the product of the unexpected conjunction of at least two titular figures, Vieira and Verlaine,3 and for those that rushed to place Pessoa as a poet, The Book would reveal a writer of prose, and a great writer of prose at that. I imagine that after reading The Book of Disquiet, Saramago, who admired Pessoa, would have exclaimed: 'but wait, it wasn't enough to be a poet, or better, four poets? There was also Bernardo Soares?' Naturally, this is just speculation, but it is important to note that after Saramago read The Book he did not write The Year of the Death of Bernardo Soares, or make big references to the bookkeeper of the city of Lisbon. Instead, he rescued Ricardo Reis (whom he had read when he was young and for whom he developed an unambiguous fascination) and wanted to write his book about Lisbon, as someone who did not want, literarily, to lose a city. [End Page 78] Let us remember that the Manual of Painting and Calligraphy is to a certain extent an Italian book, containing this celebrated phrase: 'for my part, I can say that I shall always visit Italy in a state of total submission, on my...