At age 16, he went to Coimbra to study law at the University of Coimbra; there he met the poet Antero de Quental. Eça's first work was a series of prose poems, published in the "Gazeta de Portugal" magazine, which eventually appeared in book form in a posthumous collection edited by Batalha Reis entitled "Prosas Bárbaras" ("Barbarous texts"). He worked as a journalist at Évora, then returned to Lisbon and, with his former school friend Ramalho Ortigão and others, created the "Correspondence" of the fictional adventurer Fradique Mendes. This amusing work was first published in 1900.