SOURCE: "Sá-Carneiro and the Conte Fantastique," in Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, Summer, 1975, pp. 65-79.

Bacarisse compares the incredible elements of Sá-Carneiro's work to the fantasy writings of nineteenth-century French writers.

An important and obvious facet of both the poetry and the prose of Sá-Carneiro is his fascination for the incredible, the impossible, in fact for the fantastique so dear to the conteurs of the 19th century in France and to the sources of inspiration of so many of them, E. T. A. Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe. This legacy from the Romantic movement is manifested over and over again in narrative action and the experiences of his protagonists, in his imagery and, not unexpectedly, in his own consciousness as a storyteller. Impossível, incrível, bizarro, estranho, fantástico, inexplicável, mágico, esquisito, extraordinário, estrambótico, nimbado, singular, inexprimível, perturbador, quimérico...