n several occasions Denis entered on a collision course with a handful of Portuguese authors. One of these was Almeida Garrett, who the French writer accused three times of plagiarizing his ideas and texts. Two of these accusations were made in 1826 when Denis claimed that Garrett had copied his ideas, first in Camões (1825) with ideas taken from his work Scènes de la nature dans les tropiques et de leur influence sur la poésie; suivies de Camoens et Jozé Indio (1824), and then in Bosquejo da história da poesia e língua portuguesa (Outline of the history of Portuguese poetry and language) (1826), with ideas taken from his work Résumé de l'histoire littéraire du Portugal…

In 1839, Garrett apologized in the 2nd edition of Camões for what had happened. This did not prevent a third instance arising in 1844 at the time of the publication of Frei Luís de Sousa, which Denis claimed was based on his 1835 novel in two volumes, Luiz de Souza (José da Silva Terra, “Os emigrados liberais portugueses em França”, 1983, pp. 330-335). Even if Castilho supported Denis in his accusations, some of the most authoritative scholars in the 20th century who studied the question relativize the importance of the matter; such is the case of Georges Le Gentil (Henrique de Campos Ferreira Lima, Cartas dirigidas pelo conde de Raczynski…, Op. Cit., p. 22 and n. 1). Today the question has been reduced to its proper proportions, especially after the classic reconstitution of Garrett’s literary creative processes undertaken by Professor Ofélia Paiva Monteiro in A Formação de Almeida Garrett. Experiência e Criação (The Formation of Almeida Garrett. Experience and Creation) (Coimbra, 1971, 2 vols.) Its true significance should be viewed in the light of the cultural habits of the time, forms of inspiration and aesthetic choices, which were especially sensitive when it came to delineating paths of innovation as was clearly the case with Garrett. In addition, the whole affair was not unconnected to the problem of personal relationships and personal solidarity. As is well known, Garrett’s references to Castilho’s work were far from enthusiastic. In short, such differences of opinion should not be confused with plagiarism in the meaning that the word has today.

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