Unveiling the Treasure of Gatomorto: A 19th-Century Galician Adventure
Sides of the Sheaves
BO: (Head) – Making Congontras (existed in reality), Lorenzo (the father, existed), the blind Campanachoca, the Pindonga, Helena, the hoarse (André).
Malo (Head): Lazarus Rivadulla (existed in reality), Odem live, ass hair, the Judas.
History
The story is set in the area of Pontevedra. In particular, the story unfolds between the tavern of the Dispute, an old married couple’s home, and the house of Gatomorto, where the treasure lies. The novel is set in the mid-19th century because of the riots that occurred in Pontevedra and Compostela. The total time frame is one or two years. The structure is divided into eight parts, and these are the chapters. Most of the work is written in the third person, except in the dialogues, which are in the first person. The descriptions are objective, and the verbs are mainly in the imperfect past tense.
Characters
Lourenço Tasende
The protagonist of the novel. Since childhood, he lived in the Dispute with his parents, working there. He was accustomed to living with drunkards and all kinds of people who ended up at the inn. He falls in love with a young woman named Helena, and he travels around Galicia, living many adventures and even risking his life to protect the girl. In the end, he solves the mystery of the treasure but ends up in prison. Thanks to Helena, he meets his grandparents and spends a few years with them before they pass away. Lourenço becomes a man and stays with Helena, with whom he will spend the rest of his life in the struggle to belong to their parents.
Lourenço Tasende’s Father
He is a good man but with a very troubled past. He is the reason his child becomes involved in the theft of the sheaves. He dies defending Helena and his son from Lazarus, who shot him in the head.
Lazarus Rivadulla
His arrival to the contention starts it all: his mother’s illness, his father’s change in character, the arrival of other bandits to the Dispute, etc. He is very selfish and evil, able to kill anyone who stands in his way to get what he wants. He killed Lourenço’s father and pursued Helena and Lazarus with the same intention but without success. This character was physically characterized by the absence of one hand.
Helena Rouco
Helena was the daughter of wealthy people. When her parents died, her uncle, a priest from Belus, took her in and left her all his money. That’s why they decided to assault him, and it is then that she met Lourenço. She is a girl with blond hair and is idealized, flirting with Lourenço. Throughout the adventure, Helena teaches him to read, and while the boy joins Thomas’s sheaf, she seeks out her grandparents for Lourenço to meet and live with them.
Thomas Congostra
He is a Portuguese man and has the other sheaves in the region. Unlike Lazarus, he seems to have a good heart because he cares for Lourenço and risks trying to save him from Lazarus when escaping from the house of the well. This house was where the sheaves that previously attacked Lourenço owned, and it was also where part of a hidden treasure was. Finally, Thomas also ends up in jail with Lourenço, where he will spend a few years before he can get out.
Campanachoca
A member of Thomas’s sheaf, he is an old, blind man. He helps Lourenço in his escape and tells him about his father. He is with him in a taxi when he was singing, and short relationships between them, that of his father. It was then that Campanachoca says he will accompany him and Helena to Lugo. Thanks to him, they get back to Pontevedra after leaving Helena safe.
Personal Opinion
In my opinion, this novel is quite dull and slow in the beginning but easy to read, fun, and exciting at the end. The lexicon is not particularly complicated, and the way it is written encourages reading from the first hundred pages or so, although this could also be related to the degree to which one is engaged in the story.
The story, though fairly typical (stories of brigands are very common in Portugal, especially in the oral tradition, and these are common throughout world literature), makes an end, hooking the book and keeping you in suspense at various times. Through it, you can also enjoy the reflection of a part of 19th-century Portugal, in which many peasants and sailors were tired of living in a society with many traces of feudalism and, to avoid poverty, resorted to delinquency.
Therefore, my evaluation of this work is positive, since the author unites intrigue with tradition, creating an easy-to-read novel.