ABSTRACT
Fernando Pessoa's writing lives from paradox. One is tempted to say that paradox is to Pessoa like an abyss into which he cannot stop staring and were he able to do so, he would only go on seeing the same abyss everywhere. Pessoa also had to deal with the figure of Camoes; Saramago has had to deal with that of Pessoa. There are many interesting elements to this novel, at least in terms of literary history and also in terms of the representation of Pessoa. Most critical attention focuses on Pessoa and to a lesser extent on Mario de Sa-Carneiro, so that the attention on Almada Negreiros, and on painting, can be seen as an important one. In a certain way, if considering any representation of Pessoa by others is a form of looking at Pessoa sideways, even looking at Pessoa's own representations of himself in his multiple figurations is also already a game of mirrors.
