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Letters of a Portuguese Nun: A Literary Mystery in Beja
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April 11, 2010 |
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I first heard the name "Mariana Alcoforado" from a history professor at Evora University in the rural Alentejo region of Portugal - an area not far from Lisbon known for its rolling hills and endless cork and olive trees. The story Professor Libanio Murteira Reis told of a clandestine love affair between this nun and a soldier - and the subsequent literary mystery that unfolded - enchanted me so much that I decided to seek out the remnants of the tale. I began with the scholarly writings devoted to this controversial story and the landmarks that remain from the life of this nun born in the seventeenth century in the town of Beja.
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