
MARIO DE SA-CARNEIRO
A Confissão de Lucio
A voice from the shadows of a Lisbon prison reaches out after a decade of silence, insisting on its own innocence in a murder that once made headlines as a “crime of passion.” Lucio, the narrator, offers a raw, unflinching confession that blends legal detail with personal philosophy, revealing how the weight of accusation transformed his existence into a kind of living death. The narrative moves between stark recollections of the trial, the emptiness of the cell, and a bleak contemplation of what it means to be both condemned and unseen.
Beyond the courtroom, the story drifts into Lucio’s restless wanderings through late‑19th‑century Europe, his encounters with eccentric artists, and the fragmented memories that keep him tethered to a past he cannot fully escape. As he lays out each fact—no matter how minor—listeners are invited to piece together the truth for themselves, navigating a labyrinth of doubt, pride, and the lingering glow of an unspent moment that has shaped his whole life.
Language
pt
Duration
~2 hours (157K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
Portugal: Em casa de autor, 1914.
Credits
Laura Natal Rodrigues (Images generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
Release date
2022-08-21
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1890–1916
A brilliant, restless voice of Portuguese modernism, he wrote poetry and fiction charged with dreamlike intensity, identity, and inner conflict. His career lasted only a few years, but his work left a lasting mark on 20th-century literature.
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