Novel
Iphigenia
Ifigenia. Diario de una señorita que escribió porque se fastidiaba
Teresa de la Parra · 1924
Synopsis
María Eugenia Alonso, fatherless, returns to Caracas after years of boarding school and Parisian life, in love with fashion and freedom. She discovers that the hacienda that was to come to her has passed into the hands of her uncle Eduardo and that she now depends on her grandmother, guardian of a strict morality, who wants to marry her to a good match. In a very long letter to her friend Cristina, then in a diary that no one reads, she says what she cannot say to her family, torn between Gabriel, whom she loves, and César Leal, whom the family intends for her.
Context
The author wrote most of the novel in 1921 and 1922; a text awarded a prize in 1922 became the Diario de una señorita que se fastidiaba, the first state of the book. The complete novel, Ifigenia, won in Paris in 1924 the competition of the Casa Editora Franco-Ibero-Americana, endowed with ten thousand francs, and Francis de Miomandre produced the French translation in 1926 and 1927. Well received by Parisian men of letters, it was attacked by the conservative critics of Caracas, and Anales de Literatura Hispanoamericana counts it among the most contested novels of its time.
Who it is for
A novel in the form of a long letter and a private diary. It helps to know that the title refers to Agamemnon's daughter, offered in sacrifice by her own family.
Prizes and reception
Winner of a Parisian competition for American novelists, fought over in Caracas; its author was in 1989 the first Venezuelan woman buried in the National Pantheon.
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