His writing, which is centred in the local and the picturesque and is in a general sense affiliated with the Romantic tradition, is often regarded in contrast to that of Eça de Queiroz – a cosmopolitan dandy and a fervorous proponent of Realism, who was Camilo's literary contemporary in spite of being 20 years younger. In this "tension" between Camilo and Eça – often dubbed by critics "the literary guerrilla" – many have interpreted a synthesis of the two great tendencies present in the Portuguese literature of the 19th century.