II
The first marriage
"Alongside the poetry of love comes the prose of marriage."
Camilo Castelo Branco
At the age of 16, the young Camilo married Joaquina Pereira de França, the daughter of a merchant from Friúme, in the municipality of Ribeira de Pena.
There, he worked as an amanuensis, the first and only paid public position he held in his life.
Joaquina and Camilo had a daughter, Rosa. When he entered the Medical-Surgical School in Porto to study medicine, he left Ribeira de Pena and, it is believed, to never returned there; it is also likely that the future novelist had thus abandoned his wife and young daughter.
Patrícia Emília de Barros
Bernardina Amélia, daughter of Patrícia Emília de Barros and Camilo Castelo Branco
Maria Felicidade do Couto Browne
Ana Augusta Plácido
While they were both still alive, he fell in love with Patrícia Emília de Barros, with whom he had a daughter, Bernardina Amélia. Other clandestine relationships followed, almost always shrouded in controversy.
Examples include the nun from the Convent of St Benedict of Ave-Maria, Isabel Vaz Mourão; Maria Felicidade do Couto Browne; and Ana Augusta Plácido.
The portrait of Joaquina Pereira de França’s sister
There is no known portrait of Camilo's first wife. According to tradition, Joaquina was very similar to her sister.
House of Camilo in Friúme
Place where Camilo and Joaquina lived after their marriage.
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