Lady Bobs, o seu irmão e eu: um romance dos Açores

by Jean Chamblin, Manuel Menezes de Sequeira (Translation, introduction, notes), Patrick Orre (Translation consultant)

«Minha querida, encontrei-as!

Estão aqui todas, as nove ilhas dos Açores. Pequenas ilhas cheias de orações e santuários e sinos vespertinos, enfiadas num fio de água, como as dezenas nas voltas de um Rosário do Mar.»

«Lady Bobs equilibra-se com leveza feminina, muito humor e virtuo- sa elegância no cruzamento entre a literatura de viagem e o roman- ce epistolar. Escrito após uma digressão de Jean Chamblin pelo ar- quipélago açoriano, o livro oferece um interessante retrato da socie- dade micaelense em inícios do século XX. Por entre descrições de paisagens rurais que se iluminam ou fantasmagorizam consoante os caprichos do clima, o olhar sensível da viajante americana capta as pessoas, lugares e costumes ilhéus, tecendo uma narrativa anco- rada no casamento fértil entre a estranheza, o equívoco, a ironia e o fascínio. Um livro imprescindível, finalmente publicado nos Açores.» – PAULO RAMALHO

«Romance epistolar publicado em 1905, agora traduzido para portu- guês, Lady Bobs, o seu irmão e eu vem juntar-se à literatura dos Açores ou que tem o arquipélago como tema, e muito deve ao zelo do tradutor e editor Manuel Menezes de Sequeira, que o apresenta e a par e passo anota com máxima atenção aos contextos biográfico, literário e açórico, em favor de uma melhor compreensão e deleite dos leitores contemporâneos. Uma edição verdadeiramente exem- plar, portanto, que cumpre saudar entusiasticamente.» – VASCO ROSA

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1905

About the author

Jean DuPuy Chamblin (Nevada, 1876 aft. 1950), with family roots in Virginia and France, dedicated her life to theater, writing, and activism. She achieved episodic success as an actress, playing alongside actors and actresses such as Tyrone Power Sr. and Mrs. Fiske (in 1899, at The Fifth Avenue Theatre, in Becky Sharp, with the role of Marquise de Steyne). In 1919 she traveled to France to work for the American Expeditionary Force as Secretary of the National War Work Council of the YMCA. She traveled multiple times throughout her life, both in the US, as an actress, and abroad, especially in Europe.

In 1902 she visited the Azores, as did her character Kate perhaps escaping the realization of her obscurity as an actress. She left New York on the steamer Dona Maria, passed through Faial, São Jorge, and Angra do Heroísmo, and arrived in Ponta Delgada around May 8, 1902. She stayed there until the end of July, at the Hotel Brown, where she met the owners. She made the obligatory excursions to Sete Cidade and Furnas, immersed herself in the life of Rua do Bесo, participated in and photographed the Festas do Espírito Santo, and took notes for her fictionalized, almost autobiographical and epistolary travel narrative. She published it 1905, at Putnam, after it had been serialized in The Critic. Aside from the screenplay for the silent film Back to the Simple Life, from 1914, no other works by her are known.

Reviews

[Annadwolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘And no matter how far these children will wander as men, it is not the Azorean heart to forget his family hearth. It is this love of home and their own people that has made that most beautiful word of theirs, saudade. We have no word for that; it is full of longing, and loving, and home.’ (158)

‘I leaned against the bank and laughed as one can laugh only in the open mountain air, where the sun is shining’ (122)

[Natacha Glautier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mooi boekje om nog even na te genieten van onze reis naar de Azoren. Beetje pride en prejudice op de Azoren. Kostuumdrama van begin 20ste eeuw door de bril van een vrouw die het allemaal met een korreltje zout neemt.