Name: The House of the Spirits
ISBN: 9780553273915

Isabel Allende

Traces the lives of the Truebas family, starting with clairvoyant Clara de Valle's summoning of the man she intends to marry, ambitious Esteban Trueba, and following their lives through which they suffer and triumph.

The House of the Spirits

kari <33

I would use her notebooks and then reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own. 

Even before she was born, Nívea had known she was not of this world, because she had already seen her in dreams. 

the responsibility of her beauty would become her husband’s. 

until women shortened their dresses and their hair and stopped wearing corsets, it made no difference if they studied medicine or had the right to vote, because they would not have the strength to do it, but she herself was not brave enough to be among the first to give up the fashion. 

My problem was that I didn’t have a cent, although I felt capable, through my love, of becoming a rich man. 

The brother and sister had drifted apart, and the only thing that remained to unite them was the presence of their mother and the vague memory of the love they had had for each other as children. 

Whenever I think back on those days, I feel a great sadness. My life has gone by very fast. 

Zainab 

Es sei gut, wenn die Welt erführe, welche Greuel parallel zu dem friedliche geordneten Dasein anderer geschahen, derer, die nicht wissen wollten, derer, die es fertigbrachten, sich die Illusion von einem normalen Leben zu bewahren, derer, die leugnen konnten, daß sie auf einem Floß über ein Meer von Klagen fuhren, und die gegen alle Evidenz nicht sahen, daß ein paar Häuser neben ihrer glücklichen Welt die anderen waren, die, die auf der dunklen Seite überlebten oder starben. 

Taira Robles

It was another world. A world whose existence he had not even suspected. Until that moment there had been a dividing line on one side of which stood the solemn poor and on the other people like himself, among whom he had classed Amanda. He knew nothing of that silent middle class that struggled between genteel poverty and the impossible desire of emulating the golden canaille to which he himself belonged. He felt confused and embarrassed, thinking of the many occasions in the past when she must have had to use witchcraft to keep her poverty from being noticed at the Truebas' and he, in his complete innocence, hadn't helped her. He remembered his father's stories about his poor childhood and how at Nicolás's age he was already out working to support his mother and sister. For the first time in his life, he managed to link those didactic anecdotes with a reality he could see. He thought Amanda's life must be like that.

Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of the unknown. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality. Dying is like being born: just a change.

De amor y de sombra

Definitivamente hay un cambio entre Isabel viejita e Isabel de ahora, no hay comparación con sus libros viejitos.

Apretuja mucho el corazón este libro, pero se me hizo mucho romance para mí. Como que siempre que pasa algo importante (eg la cueva) es opacado por el romance y personalmente not for me. 

Pero se nota todo el trabajo de investigación que hizo Isabel. 

Denisse Garcia Ramírez 

Definitivamente hay un cambio entre Isabel viejita e Isabel de ahora, no hay comparación con sus libros viejitos.

Apretuja mucho el corazón este libro, pero se me hizo mucho romance para mí. Como que siempre que pasa algo importante (eg la cueva) es opacado por el romance y personalmente not for me. 

Pero se nota todo el trabajo de investigación que hizo Isabel. 

The house of the spirits

Enchanting. Engaging. Dense but incredibly well-paced. A masterpiece.

Frederik De Bosschere

yuyu

I’m so deeply touched by this book. Latin American literature is out of this world. What a story and I’m a sucker for magical realism living inside historical events. This is a gem with one of the best endings I’ve read. Tragical but hopeful. Happy to see that in reality, in the present, being hopeful was worth it.

I have so much to say and don’t have the words. 

Ani Velasquez

I’m so deeply touched by this book. Latin American literature is out of this world. What a story and I’m a sucker for magical realism living inside historical events. This is a gem with one of the best endings I’ve read. Tragical but hopeful. Happy to see that in reality, in the present, being hopeful was worth it.

I have so much to say and don’t have the words. 

This is the first book I’ve read that deals with magic, activism and the things some woman go through. Also love the Spanish overtone it really ties the historic element together & the common generational mistakes the four women make when it comes to men. 

Edna Aviles

As a girl, Clara del Valle can read fortunes, make objects move as if they had lives of their own, and predict the future. Following the mysterious death of her sister, Rosa the Beautiful, Clara is mute for nine years. When she breaks her silence, it is to announce that she will be married soon to the stern and volatile landowner Esteban Trueba. Set in an unnamed Latin American country over three generations, The House of the Spirits is a magnificent epic of a proud and passionate family, secret loves and violent revolution.

Loved this so much!!! v HEAVILY influenced by One Hundred Years - if u r a lover of Magical Realism n Latin American Lit u will love this. I love One Hundred Years v dearly but I do think it can be hard to read n follow, not really the best introduction into the genre, and I think Allende’s ‘The House of the Spirits’ is a much better place to start with venturing into Latin American Lit!!!

Themes r v similar to One Hundred Years - fate and determinism, cyclicality of time etc etc - but I think where Allende really stands out is in the way she breathes life into her female characters~ love Gabo (rip king) but his writing of female characters can sometimes fall into v reductive and tired stereotypes. Allende does an amazing job with her depiction of the female experience, esp in the ways she portrays the different ways violence can be enacted on women of different classes (altho TW because her writing is also v visceral and some parts genuinely gagged me a bit)

Loved this so much!!! v HEAVILY influenced by One Hundred Years - if u r a lover of Magical Realism n Latin American Lit u will love this. I love One Hundred Years v dearly but I do think it can be hard to read n follow, not really the best introduction into the genre, and I think Allende’s ‘The House of the Spirits’ is a much better place to start with venturing into Latin American Lit!!!

Themes r v similar to One Hundred Years - fate and determinism, cyclicality of time etc etc - but I think where Allende really stands out is in the way she breathes life into her female characters~ love Gabo (rip king) but his writing of female characters can sometimes fall into v reductive and tired stereotypes. Allende does an amazing job with her depiction of the female experience, esp in the ways she portrays the different ways violence can be enacted on women of different classes (altho TW because her writing is also v visceral and some parts genuinely gagged me a bit)

A best seller and critical success all over the world, The House of the Spirits is the magnificent epic of the Trueba family -- their loves, their ambitions, their spiritual quests, their relations with one another, and their participation in the history of their times, a history that becomes destiny and overtakes them all. We begin -- at the turn of the century, in an unnamed South American country -- in the childhood home of the woman who will be the mother and grandmother of the clan, Clara del Valle. A warm-hearted, hypersensitive girl, Clara has distinguished herself from an early age with her telepathic abilities -- she can read fortunes, make objects move as if they had lives of their own, and predict the future. Following the mysterious death of her sister, the fabled Rosa the Beautiful, Clara has been mute for nine years, resisting all attempts to make her speak. When she breaks her silence, it is to announce that she will be married soon. Her husband-to-be is Esteban Trueba, a stern, willful man, given to fits of rage and haunted by a profound loneliness. At the age of thirty-five, he has returned to the capital from his country estate to visit his dying mother and to find a wife. (He was Rosa's fiance, and her death has marked him as deeply as it has Clara.) This is the man Clara has foreseen -- has summoned -- to be her husband; Esteban, in turn, will conceive a passion for Clara that will last the rest of his long and rancorous life. We go with this couple as they move into the extravagant house he builds for her, a structure that everyone calls "the big house on the corner," which is soon populated with Clara's spiritualist friends, the artists she sponsors, the charity cases she takes an interest in, with Esteban's political cronies, and, above all, with the Trueba children...their daughter, Blanca, a practical, self-effacing girl who will, to the fury of her father, form a lifelong liaison with the son of his foreman...the twins, Jaime and Nicolas, the former a solitary, taciturn boy who becomes a doctor to the poor and unfortunate; the latter a playboy, a dabbler in Eastern religions and mystical disciplines...and, in the third generation, the child Alba, Blanca's daughter (the family does not recognize the real father for years, so great is Esteban's anger), a child who is fondled and indulged and instructed by them all. For all their good fortune, their natural (and supernatural) talents, and their powerful attachments to one another, the inhabitants of "the big house on the corner" are not immune to the larger forces of the world. And, as the twentieth century beats on...as Esteban becomes more strident in his opposition to Communism...as Jaime becomes the friend and confidant of the Socialist leader known as the Candidate...as Alba falls in love with a student radical...the Truebas become actors -- and victims -- in a tragic series of events that gives The House of the Spirits a deeper resonance and meaning. It is the supreme achievement of this splendid novel that we feel ourselves members of this large, passionate (and sometimes exasperating) family, that we become attached to them as if they were our own. That this is the author's first novel makes it all the more extraordinary. The House of the Spirits marks the appearance of a major, international writer.

Roman

Das Geisterhaus

Eine Familiensaga des 20. Jahrhunderts in Chile.

Man begleitet 4 Frauen Generationen, ihr Leben, die Menschen, die sie treffen, wie und wen sie lieben, die Umstände, in denen sie aufwachsen, ihre Vorlieben, Wünsche und Eigenheiten. Ich mochte, wie facettenreich die weiblichen Hauptfiguren im Buch sind, wie sie sich voneinander unterscheiden. Wie stark, selbstlos, sanft und weich sie beschrieben werden und wie viel Liebe und Mut sie aufbringen und ganz auf ihre eigene Art und Weise weiblich sind.

Man erfährt auch über die Gefühlswelt der männlichen Figuren, die es nie gelernt haben, offen mit ihren Emotionen umzugehen und wie das in Wut und Abkapselung führt.

Die politischen Ereignisse in Chile nehmen viel Raum in der Geschichte ein und wie diese das Leben der Familie beeinflussen. Durch dieses Buch habe ich viel über die Geschichte Chiles, ihre Landschaft und Geographie, die Kultur und Religion des Landes und natürlich über die politischen Ereignisse erfahren, die das Land für Jahre in Aufruhr versetzt haben.

In diesem Buch, in dem sich die Autorin des magischen Realismus bedient, war ich hin und hergerissen zwischen den brutalen Ereignissen und der rohen Wirklichkeit und dem Magischen und Verzerrten, das den Charakter der weiblichen Figuren, die im Zentrum des Geschehens stehen, wiedergibt, und das magische Etwas einer Frau unterstreicht.

Ein sehr vielschichtiges Buch, das in 500 Seiten so viele wichtige Themen aufgreift und zeigt, wie Fehler- und wechselhaft wir Menschen doch sind.

Mir hat das Buch sehr gefallen, und es hat mir, was selten bei mir passiert, am Ende ein paar Tränen entlockt.

Eine Familiensaga des 20. Jahrhunderts in Chile.

Man begleitet 4 Frauen Generationen, ihr Leben, die Menschen, die sie treffen, wie und wen sie lieben, die Umstände, in denen sie aufwachsen, ihre Vorlieben, Wünsche und Eigenheiten. Ich mochte, wie facettenreich die weiblichen Hauptfiguren im Buch sind, wie sie sich voneinander unterscheiden. Wie stark, selbstlos, sanft und weich sie beschrieben werden und wie viel Liebe und Mut sie aufbringen und ganz auf ihre eigene Art und Weise weiblich sind.

Man erfährt auch über die Gefühlswelt der männlichen Figuren, die es nie gelernt haben, offen mit ihren Emotionen umzugehen und wie das in Wut und Abkapselung führt.

Die politischen Ereignisse in Chile nehmen viel Raum in der Geschichte ein und wie diese das Leben der Familie beeinflussen. Durch dieses Buch habe ich viel über die Geschichte Chiles, ihre Landschaft und Geographie, die Kultur und Religion des Landes und natürlich über die politischen Ereignisse erfahren, die das Land für Jahre in Aufruhr versetzt haben.

In diesem Buch, in dem sich die Autorin des magischen Realismus bedient, war ich hin und hergerissen zwischen den brutalen Ereignissen und der rohen Wirklichkeit und dem Magischen und Verzerrten, das den Charakter der weiblichen Figuren, die im Zentrum des Geschehens stehen, wiedergibt, und das magische Etwas einer Frau unterstreicht.

Ein sehr vielschichtiges Buch, das in 500 Seiten so viele wichtige Themen aufgreift und zeigt, wie Fehler- und wechselhaft wir Menschen doch sind.

Mir hat das Buch sehr gefallen, und es hat mir, was selten bei mir passiert, am Ende ein paar Tränen entlockt.

Ceej Manaloto

Han transcurrido más de veinticinco años desde la publicación de LA CASA DE LOS ESPÍRITUS escrita por Isabel Allende (1942), una casi desconocida chilena exiliada en Caracas que, para «sacarse del alma los fantasmas», tomó la pluma en enero de 1981 y no paró hasta enhebrar más de quinientas páginas, como un exorcismo. Después comenzó la peregrinación por las editoriales del lugar, que la rechazaron, para finalmente lanzarse con éxito en España, de donde saltó a Europa e Hispanoamérica. En ese proceso de recepción literaria llega por fin al Chile de Pinochet en el que se cuela de contrabando burlando la censura. A partir de ahí explota el «fenómeno Allende»: un inmenso éxito de ventas, traducciones al alemán, ruso, japonés... y la versión cinematográfica en 1993. La clave de este éxito radica en la extraordinaria capacidad de narrar de Isabel Allende, inventora de una «comedia humana» al estilo de Balzac.

La casa de los espíritus

hileahrious

Couldn’t finish this book. Boring as hell and nonsensical until even halfway through.

De amor y de sombra.

You’re never really sure where in the world this story takes place - I believe it’s about Chile solely based on the political unrest we experience throughout the pages. The book feels like a family history - a journey you take that guides you through generations and across many view points from the main characters. The magical elements woven throughout make it feel like the story telling from a Wes Anderson movie - the way the character’s personalities are so far removed from ‘normal’. There’s so much pain, suffering, intense love, loss, revenge, and redemption that you almost get lost in your own emotions. One minute you hate a character and the next you justify them for their actions. It’s full circle and you come to realize destiny is written, our family history is rooted in our life’s story, and that everything happens for a reason. A story of the power struggle between politics and class structure, respecting debts that are owed and some that are never taken seriously.

Paige Woodie

La primera novela de Isabel Allende, La casa de los espíritus narra la saga de una poderosa familia de terratenientes latinoamericanos. El despótico patriarca Esteban Trueba ha construido con mano de hierro un imperio privado que empieza a tambalearse con el paso del tiempo y un entorno social explosivo. Finalmente, la decadencia personal del patriarca arrastrará a los Trueba a una dolorosa desintegración. Atrapados en unas dramáticas relaciones familiares, los personajes de esta poderosa novela encarnan las tensiones sociales y espirituales de una época que abarca gran parte del siglo XX. Con impecable pulso narrativo y gran lucidez histórica, Isabel Allende ha creado un fresco en el que conviven lo cotidiano con lo maravilloso, el amor con la revolución y los ideales personales con la dura realidad política. La crítica ha dicho: «Un logro único, a la vez testimonio personal y posible alegoría del pasado, el presente y el futuro de América Latina.» The New York Times Book Review «Una crónica fuerte y absorbente de una familia chilena, con detalles opulentos y con un trasfondo místico... Un refinada combinación de escenarios.» Kirkus Review «Hay muy pocos viajes más emocionantes que los realizados en la imaginación de una novelista genial. Esa experiencia está disponible en La Casa de los Espíritus de Isabel Allende...» Cosmopolitan «La escritura de Allende es tan creativa, divertida y convincente que en el proceso de crear una estimulante novela política también ha creado una viva y una cautivante obra de arte. Sus personajes son fascinantemente detallados y humanos.» People «Un cuento seductor, a veces mágico... En su tumultuosa historia de la rebelión y el amor entre tres generaciones, es una alegoría en la que cualquier familia debería ser capaz de reconocer un poco de sí misma.» The Wall Street Journal «Absolutamente sorprendente. En La Casa de los Espíritus, Isabel Allende nos ha demostrado la relación entre el pasado y el presente, la familia y la nación, la ciudad y el país, los valores espirituales y los políticos.» San Francisco Chronicle

La primera vez que leì este libro, con 13 años y en italiano, estaba sobretodo curiosa con los aspectos culturales y el titulo. Ahora que lo leo de nuovo, tan cerca de los 26, me digo, ay, porsupuesto que crecì asì, vaya.

Annabella

Rebecca Grandison 

Of love and shadows

This was a very entertaining and quite different for Allende in that it's a more contemporary story. Not my favourite of her novels but I still couldn't put it down as it's a book full of suspense

winter ☆ 

all time favorite, thank you señora allende

Cindy Lieberman

A sweeping, multi-generations novel with magical realism and the backdrop of changing politics in an unnamed Latin American country. (Other more knowledgeable reviewers suggest is is based on Chile and the rise of Pinochet).

La casa de los espíritus narra la saga familiar de los Trueba, desde principios del siglo XX hasta nuestra época. Magistralmente ambientada en algún lugar de América Latina, la novela sigue paso a paso el dramático y extravagante destino de unos personajes atrapados en un entorno sorprendente y exótico. Una novela de impecable pulso estilístico y aguda lucidez histórica y social.

Aylén Abril Costantini 

Increíble ! Tiene absolutamente de todo, es lindo, es cruel, te hace reír y te hace llorar. De mis favoritos.

 the narration got a bit tedious sometimes, but overall, this book had some good moments in it, and it also gave a deeper understanding of how things worked in Chile during the dictatorship the country went through

Josefina

Caroline Mao

hmmmmm

3.75 stars

dragged on a bit but tbh I’m just a shitty reader with a bad attention span so who knows. started this months ago too but have had trouble digesting longer works. :( if I was in a better frame of mind I could have appreciated this more, and it was still a really good book. also I love Clara the most she is bae

Risa C

We've progressed past the need for stories of women suffering for the sake of a man's redemption arc.

Una saga familiare del nostro secolo in cui si rispecchiano la storia e il destino di tutto un popolo, quello cileno, nei racconti delle donne di una importante e stravagante famiglia. Un grande affresco che per fascino ed emozione può ricordare al lettore, nell&'ambito della narrativa sudamericana, soltanto &"Cent&'anni di solitudine&" di García Márquez.

La casa degli spiriti

Chiara Malaspina di Orezzoli

Certi libri vanno riletti per capire quanto possono suonare diversi, nel tempo.

«Per la prima volta nella sua vita, Alba sentì il bisogno di essere bella e rimpianse che nessuna delle splendide donne della sua famiglia le avesse lasciato in eredità i suoi attributi [...]. Quando Miguel indovinò la sua inquietudine, la portò per mano fino al grande specchio veneziano che ornava un angolo della camera segreta; tolse la polvere dal vetro incrinato e poi accese tutte le candele che aveva e gliele mise intorno. Lei si rimirò nei mille frammenti dello specchio. La sua pelle, illuminata dalle candele, aveva il colore irreale delle figure di cera. Miguel cominciò ad accarezzarla e lei vide trasformarsi il suo volto nel caleidoscopio dello specchio e convenne infine che lei era la più bella dell'universo, perché aveva potuto vedersi con gli occhi con cui la vedeva Miguel»

Tia Pickering 

Corey White

Someone I worked with at a bookstore once told me how great Allende was, and this story in particular was her favorite. This was over a decade ago, and pretty soon after she mentioned it I read it, and then through a couple more years I would read Eva Luna and maybe one other. At the time I would have sworn that I loved Allende, I use to name her as one of my favorite authors, but as I picked up this book again after finding a paperback copy at a library bookstore, I came to realize I did not remember much of the story at all. 
This time I read with less haste, humbled by how I had thrown out her name to those asking, as if I could say what actually happened in any of her books. When I thought myself more well read than I was. 
The story is far deeper than I remembered. Intricate, hard to swallow at times, beautiful in others. I stopped reading it and went on to other books a few times, but it haunted me in my shelf demanding I finish it before the year was over. And so I did. Today I read the last 1/6th give or take, and it brought the whole story together so well. 
Allende writes stories that take time. She writes characters that are so easy to hate but are so loved by their families. 

As much as I just wanted to finish this one and be done, I’ll probably pick up and reread Eva Luna in the new year, there is so much I have forgotten.

Maribel González

La casa de los espíritus es un recorrido por cuatro generaciones, con personajes femeninos fuertes, sucesos durísimos y dolorosos. En varios momentos se me ha hecho cuesta arriba, pero ha sido una gran lectura y he aprendido mucho de ella.