Authors

Portuguese · 1810–1877

Alexandre Herculano

Alexandre Herculano was the most important Portuguese intellectual of the nineteenth century: historian, novelist, and political essayist who helped establish the Romantic movement in Portugal. His historical novels, including Eurico, o Presbítero (1844) and O Monge de Cister, drew on his research into medieval Portuguese history for his monumental Historia de Portugal. A liberal constitutionalist who faced imprisonment and exile under absolutism, he spent his later years farming at his Mitra estate after growing disillusioned with politics.