Ana Plácido (1831—1895) was a Portuguese

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and author. Her best known work is the 1871 novel ''Herança de Lágrimas'' (English: ''A Legacy of Tears''), and she is also noted for an

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

book ''Luz Coada por Ferros'' (English: ''Light Filtered Through Bars''; published in 1863). She was married to the author

Camilo Castelo Branco Camilo Castelo Branco, 1st Viscount of Correia Botelho (; 16 March 1825 – 1 June 1890), was a prolific Portuguese writer of the 19th century, having produced over 260 books (mainly novels, plays and essays). His writing is considered original i ...

, with whom she earlier had an extra-marital affair while she was married."Women Writers up to 1974" by Hilary Owen and Cláudio Pazos Alonso, chapter 14, pp. 168–169, in ''A Companion to Portuguese Literature'' (eds. Stephen Parkinson, Cláudio Pazos Alonso and T.F. Earle), Woodbridge, Suffolk and Rochester, NY: Tamesis, ''Herança de Lágrimas'' tells the story of a married woman named Diana who decides not to engage in adultery after reading the story of her mother's fate after doing similarly. The

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

was written to try and "voice a female-centred perspective on life" according to the academics Hilary Owen and Cláudio Pazos Alonso. On March 9, 1888, Camilo and Ana were finally married. Camilo Castelo Branco, tormented by blindness and paralysis resulting from syphilis that he had suffered for years, committed suicide in 1890. Ana Plácido would die years later, suddenly, on the night of September 20, 1895, in São Miguel de Seide; her sons would soon follow her (Manuel had already died in 1877): Nuno died in 1896 and Jorge in 1900.

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* 1831 births 1895 deaths Portuguese women novelists Place of birth missing 19th-century Portuguese writers 19th-century Portuguese novelists 19th-century Portuguese women writers {{Portugal-writer-stub