Novel
Por donde se sube al cielo
Not translated into English
Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera · 1882
Synopsis
In an out-of-fashion seaside resort, Magda, a young actress adored by the theatres of Paris, rests from a life of parties and lovers. Between a moralising senator and a young man from the provinces, she discovers a feeling she had not known, and a question presses upon her: can a woman like her still be loved for herself and change her life? The narrative blends scenes, interior monologue and flashbacks to her past.
Context
The novel appears in seventeen instalments in the feuilleton of the daily El Noticioso, from 11 June to 29 October 1882, in nine chapters. It then goes almost unnoticed and remains outside book form for more than a century; only two fragments circulated, published separately as stories. Belem Clark de Lara, starting in 1987 from a newspaper announcement, finds all the instalments and publishes them in 1994 in the author's works; her study notes there the play on time, the interior monologue and the open ending.
Who it is for
A short novel, in Spanish, with an ornate prose; it can be read in one sitting and is also available in a paperback edition.
Prizes and reception
His only novel, regarded as the first novel of Spanish-American modernism, earlier than that of José Martí (1885).
Sources for this page 14
The pages consulted to check this page.