Novel · A way to begin
The House of the Spirits
La casa de los espíritus
Isabel Allende · 1982
Synopsis
Four generations of the Trueba family, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the seventies. Clara del Valle, a child gifted with supernatural powers, keeps a diary of everything that happens; her sister Rosa dies of a poison meant for their father. Esteban Trueba, Rosa's fiancé, restores the hacienda of Tres Marías, then marries Clara. Their daughter Blanca loves Pedro Tercero García, son of the estate's foreman; from this love Alba is born. Around the family, the country goes through its social and political upheavals.
Context
The author began the book in Venezuela in January 1981, in the form of a letter to her dying grandfather, according to Britannica. The country is never named. Refused by several Spanish-language publishers, it appeared from Plaza & Janés, in Barcelona, in 1982, and launched her international career. Critics have seen in it a Chilean rewriting of Cien años de soledad, according to Memoria Chilena. Claude and Carmen Durand translated it into French for Fayard in 1984, Magda Bogin into English in 1985; Bille August adapted it for the cinema in 1993.
Who it is for
A long family novel, broad and romantic, translated into more than thirty languages; the last part becomes political.
Prizes and reception
For Memoria Chilena, the novel, very well received from its publication, is a critique of Latin American patriarchal capitalism and machismo.
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