Resumo
Amor de Salvação by Camilo Castelo Branco, published in 1864, is a romantic novel set in Portugal’s Minho region.
The story follows Affonso de Teive, a once-wealthy and flamboyant young man who, after squandering his fortune and enduring a scandalous affair with Palmyra (Theodora), a married woman, falls into ruin.
Disgraced and impoverished, Affonso moves to Paris, where he works humbly as a bookkeeper’s assistant.
His life takes a transformative turn when his cousin Mafalda, a virtuous woman guided by faith, seeks him out after her father’s death. Mafalda offers to restore Affonso’s lost estates and urges him to embrace a life of redemption. Despite her intention to join the Sisters of Charity, Affonso, moved by her purity and their shared past, proposes marriage. They return to Minho, marry, and build a serene life together, raising eight children in a rural idyll marked by faith, charity, and familial love.
The novel contrasts Affonso’s earlier destructive passion with the redemptive love he finds with Mafalda, exploring themes of salvation, virtue, and the restorative power of love and faith.