BOOK PRESENTATION

CIAC RESEARCHER PRESENTS THE BOOK “DEUS PAN AND OTHER TALES” BY JOSÉ DIAS SANCHO

On the 30th of September, at 6pm, CIAC researcher Sílvia Quinteiro and professor Maria José Marques present the book Deus Pan e outros contos [Deus Pan and other tales] at FNAC Faro (Fórum Algarve). This is the first volume of the collection Obras de José Dias Sancho, which aims to preserve, compile and bring to 21st-century readers the work of this algarvian writer from the early 20th century.

The result of a partnership between the University of the Algarve and the Municipality of São Brás de Alportel, the Obras de José Dias Sancho collection is the result of the research and editing work of Professors Sílvia Quinteiro and Maria José Marques. Deus Pan e outros contos is a collection of short stories and novellas that traces a unique portrait of the Algarve at the beginning of the 20th century. The physical and human landscapes described present the physical space with its fauna and flora and the men and women who live in it, in a parade of type-figures that crystallize the society of the time. Composing small portraits of everyday life in the Algarve, the tales of José Dias Sancho draw a clearly divided Algarve between an interior closer to the Alentejo than to the Algarve coast, along which fishing, services, commerce and tourism are developed.

José Dias Sancho (1898-1929), born in São Brás de Alportel, was a lawyer, journalist, poet, writer, lecturer, literary critic, and caricaturist. He collaborated in several newspapers and magazines, was co-founder of the newspaper Correio do Sul, and was principal editor and director of the newspaper A situação. He is the author of Canções de amor (1916), Aos homens de Portugal (1919), Ídolos de barro I (1920), Serenata de Mefistófeles (1921), Ídolos de barro II (1922), Ritual do amor (1923), A paisagem, a mulher e o amor (1925), Deus Pan: Contos rústicos e paisagens (1925), Roteiro do Algarve (1928), and Bezerros de ouro (1930).