Set in late nineteenth-century Portugal, the main character is Gonçalo Mendes Ramires, a weak-willed aristocrat, dreamer and amateur historian who, as a bachelor, is the last of a line of a noble family that predates even the King of Portugal. He is often referred to in the book simply as “The Nobleman” but he lacks the funds for the upkeep of his estate and receives regular demands from his creditors. Gonçalo feels proud of the Ramires legacy, while aware of his failure to live up to the chivalry and heroism of his forebears. To strengthen the family name and advance his own reputation, he decides to describe some of these past achievements in a “novella”, to be published in a friend's literary magazine. In the process he borrows from an
epic poem about the family by an uncle and from some novels by
Walter Scott. One review describes him as a “creative plagiarist”. The novel humorously records Gonçalo's struggles to write his novella while, at the same time, running for and being elected as a Member of Parliament. As the story proceeds, Gonçalo convinces himself that he is personally on a path that would impress his forefathers and as
Lorin Stein notes, the reader becomes unsure whether Gonçalo “has crossed the fine line between idiocy and genius”. The novel includes sections of the novella-in-progress as Gonçalo gradually gets round to writing them. These record the romanticised courage (and cruelty) of his medieval ancestor, Tructesindo Ramires, which Eça de Queirós contrasts with Gonçalo's own cowardice. Gonçalo fails to live up to his own ideal of a nobleman. To become a parliamentarian, he is willing to switch political allegiance, to forgive an enemy and to expose his sister to the attentions of that enemy. He is thus one of the most contradictory and complex characters in fiction. In addition to being a coward he is lazy and lacking in self-confidence and not a man to keep his word. He suffers from pride and throws tantrums. At the same time he is generous to the poor and is a nobleman who freely mixes with friends from outside the nobility, and in most ways is an honourable man. == Historical context ==