sketches of _Jornadas de Portugal_ (1918) skill in the choice of indigenous words gives a forcible and original poetry to glowing descriptions redolent of the soil. D. MARIA AMALIA VAZ DE CARVALHO (1847-1921) collaborated with her husband, the poet Gonçalves Crespo, in _Contos para os nossos filhos_, and in _Serões no Campo_ (1877), three stories, in one of which, _A Engeitada_, one may perhaps see reminiscences of Julio Diniz’ _A Casa Mourisca_, and _Contos e Phantasias_ (1880) treated slight themes with a delicate charm. But she is less well known as writer of _contos_ or as poet, in _Vozes do Ermo_ (1876), than as the author of a notable historical biography, _Vida do Duque de Palmella_ (1898-1903), and of critical essays on Portuguese and foreign literatures. In the latter the English predominates, but French, German, and Italian, as in _Arabescos_ (1880), are not forgotten. The sane judgement, sympathy, and insight of _Alguns homens do meu tempo_ (1889), _Figuras de Hoje e de Hontem_ (1902), _Cerebros e Corações_ (1903), _No Meu Cantinho_ (1909), _Coisas de Agora_ (1913), and other volumes have been appreciated by countless readers in Portugal and Brazil. A writer who likewise combines literary and historical criticism with original work in verse (_Poemetos_, 1882) and prose is the CONDE DE SABUGOSA (born in 1854), skilful and delicate reconstructor of the past in _Embrechados_ (1908), _Donas de Tempos Idos_ (1912), _Gente d’Algo_ (1915), _Neves de Antanho_ (1919), and _A Rainha D. Leonor_ (1921), who collaborated with another stylist, the CONDE DE ARNOSO[691] (1856-1911), author of _Azulejos_ (1886), in the volume of _contos_ entitled _De braço dado_ (1894). His historical portraits are full of life and charm, painted in the warm colours of knowledge and emotion. If we except D. Maria Amalia Vaz de Carvalho, the literary achievement of women in Portugal in recent years has not been remarkable. Like D. CLAUDIA DE CAMPOS, author of the novels _Elle_ (1898) and _A Esfinge_ and short stories, D. ALICE PESTANA (_Caiel_) has cultivated with success both the novel, as in _Desgarrada_ (1902), and the _conto_, as in _De Longe_ (1904), which contains stories of familiar life written with sincerity and truth. If D. ANNA DE CASTRO OSORIO’S _Ambições_ (1903) gives the impression rather of a series of scenes than of a long novel, in her short stories _Infelizes_ (1898)--especially _A Terra_--and _Quatro Novelas_ (1908) she ably describes common family life in town or country, or (in _A Sacrificada_) the lives, past and present, of aged nuns in a dwindling convent. D. VIRGINIA DE CASTRO E ALMEIDA has written two novels concerning the development of the soil in Alentejo: _Terra Bemdita_ (1907) and _Trabalho Bemdito_ (1908).[692] They are frankly novels with a thesis to prove, but contain so much vigour and zest of living that they stand out from other more futile or anaemic novels of contemporary Portugal.