José Manuel de Oliveira - Vivências de Camilo Castelo Branco a Partir da Sua Correspondência

Camilo's letters give rise to different interpretations and opinions regarding their real value for the knowledge of the writer's life and for the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the genesis of his literary texts. In view of this, the correspondence has been used in the reconstruction and foundation of the various phases of Camilo's biographical journey, but has been underestimated in the study of the author's literary work.

Aware of these interpretations, this study has carried out the most exhaustive inventory possible of the correspondence copies disseminated in collections of public and private entities and published in editions of the most diverse types.

The treatment and analysis of the information collected allowed us to identify the main experiences expressed by the novelist in his letters and to conclude that the study of the contents revealed to the recipients provides a better understanding of the Man and the Writer who knew how to transform his own and other people's lives into Art in a peculiar and ingenious way.