“The Lady of Pangim” was published 80 years ago

Book cover of the first Brazilian edition of “The Lady of Pangim”, 1932

The Brazilian novel “A Senhora de Pangim”, in English “The Lady of Pangim”, was published in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) 80 years ago in 1932 by the Brazilian author Gustavo Barroso. The novel fictions the life of the Brazilian lady Maria Úrsula de Abreu e Lencastre who was enrolled in the Portuguese army as “man” named Balthazar do Couto Cardoso and sent to Portuguese India around the year 1700.

The Brazilian novel written in Portuguese “A Senhora de Pangim”, in English “The Lady of Pangim”, was published 80 years ago (in 1932) in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

The Brazilian author Gustavo Barroso (1888 -1959) wrote the historical novel fictioning the life of the Brazilian woman soldier Maria Úrsula de Abreu e Lencastre. This lady, a descendent of the English House of Lancaster, was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1682.

Book cover of the Brazilian cartoon book edition of “The Lady of Pangim”, 1956

She left Brazil to Lisbon where she was enrolled in the Portuguese army as “man”, named Balthazar do Couto Cardoso, and was sent to Portuguese India around 1700. Here the lady participated in several battles, including in Chaul (India), serving under the Portuguese captain Afonso Teixeira Arraes de Melo e Mendonça, to whom she got married in Goa in 1714, after removing here man’s disguise. She never returned to Brazil and died in Goa surrounded by honours.

Book cover of the Portuguese edition of “The Lady of Pangim”, 1940

In his novel Gustavo Barroso describes the Goan and Portuguese society of the 17^th and 18^th century in a way very close to reality, much probably relying on contacts to Goans and on historical documents of the epoche. The novel became rather famous in Brazil and was also published as a cartoon book edition in Brazil in 1956 with drawings of Gutenberg Monteiro.

Gustavo Barroso was a famous brazilian intellectual, member of several Societies including the Royal Society of Literature of London. He published about 128 books and was President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.