In this essay I will propose a course of action for reading Pessoa's ‘Carta da Corcunda ao Serralheiro’ [Letter from a Hunchback Girl to a Metalworker] (by Maria José, circa 1930). Despite its late appearance in the ongoing publication of his oeuvre (1990), the letter has already attracted significant critical insight. The relevance of this distressed letter rests on the following four arguments: first, its preeminence among the poet's works and the challenge it presents to thriving Pessoan hermeneutics; secondly, the chain of association formed by texts – some from the ‘exemplary tradition’ – which may be of use in the demanding task of reading Maria José; thirdly, her minimalist ecology of writing; and finally, the success of her achievement.

Were Maria José's letter lyric poetry, it would have to be considered of the highest calibre in Pessoa's progressive ranking of a poet's depersonalisation. In his ‘Os Graus da Poesia Lírica’ [Degrees of Lyric Poetry], he reserves the highest level for the poet who ‘entra em plena despersonalização. Não só sente, mas vive, os estados de alma que não tem directamente. Em grande número de casos, cairá na poesia dramática, propriamente dita, como fez Shakespeare, poeta substancialmente lírico erguido a dramático pelo espantoso grau de despersonalização que atingiu’ [embarks upon complete depersonalisation. He not only feels, but lives, the states of soul which he does not directly possess. In a large number of cases, he will fall into true dramatic poetry, as did Shakespeare, who is an essentially lyrical poet raised to dramatic poet through the amazing degree of depersonalisation he attained].