The short story Face Sangrenta bestows the title on this first edition of Vergílio Ferreira’s first ever collection of short stories. A special print run, with five drawings by Lima de Freitas, this is number 40 of the 500 author signed copies. As a collector's item, this edition also presents a peculiar characteristic: it includes the short story Jacinto, the Free. All the other tales that make up this collection were later reissued but Jacinto, the Free would never again appear in the works of Vergílio Ferreira, and becoming a difficult to access story. The Camões Prize winner in 1992, Vergílio Ferreira stands out as one of the most highly regarded novelists and essayists of the 20th century. His short stories are second to none in their narrative richness, especially in how he cleanly and purely applies the Portuguese language, drawing inspiration from authors such as Eça de Queiroz. As the author in 1976 stated, the tales are only distinguished by their shorter length as, regarding quality, "a good tale is preferable to a bad novel".