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Letters of a Portuguese Nun
Myriam Cyr
Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love
Miramax
January 2006
256 pages
ISBN: 0786869119
Hardcover
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Fiction | Historical
In 1669, a Parisian bookseller published a slim volume
called Portuguese Letters, which unveiled a love
affair between a young Portuguese nun and a French officer
that had occurred a few years earlier during a chaotic and
war-torn period in Portgual. The book contained passionate
love letters the nun had written when the officer was forced
to return to France. The letters took Paris by storm.
They spoke of love in a manner so direct, so precise, and so
raw, they sent shivers of recognition through the
sophisticated stratums of polite society. As remarkable as
the letters are, they were rivaled by the mystery that
surrounds them: the author was unknown, and most people
assumed they were the fictional product of a French
aristocrat. The consensus was that no woman could write
words of such stunning truth and beauty. Now, through
meticulous research, Myriam Cyr persuasively makes the case
that the nun, Mariana Alcoforado, did indeed write the
letters, and her story is one of the most moving in the
history of forbidden love. While this tale is infamous
throughout Europe, it is fresh to American readers, and
Myriam Cyr brings us the extraordinary letters; the fraught,
dangerous, complex nature of this tumultuous period; and the
fascinating lives of these real-life lovers in rich
historical detail.
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