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Maria Luisa Bombal

Author profile

born

June 08, 1910 in Viña del Mar, Chile

died

May 06, 1980

gender

female

genre

Literature & Fiction, Poetry

About this author

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Maria Luisa Bombal was one of the first Spanish American novelists to break away from the realist tradition in fiction and to write in a highly individual and personal style, stressing irrational and subconscious themes. During the 1930s when most of her fellow writers were turning out works emphasizing social conflict, Bombal turned inwardly for her inspiration and produced several works of remarkable artistic quality. She incorporated the secret inner world of her women protagonists into the mainstream of her novels. In this respect she may be regarded as a precursor of the later Boom writers of the 1960s and 1970s in Latin America. And she accomplished this in a prose charged with poetic vibration, filled with a sense of imminent tragedy...more Maria Luisa Bombal was one of the first Spanish American novelists to break away from the realist tradition in fiction and to write in a highly individual and personal style, stressing irrational and subconscious themes. During the 1930s when most of her fellow writers were turning out works emphasizing social conflict, Bombal turned inwardly for her inspiration and produced several works of remarkable artistic quality. She incorporated the secret inner world of her women protagonists into the mainstream of her novels. In this respect she may be regarded as a precursor of the later Boom writers of the 1960s and 1970s in Latin America. And she accomplished this in a prose charged with poetic vibration, filled with a sense of imminent tragedy, a melancholy atmosphere in which the factors of time and death play sombre roles.

In both her novels the reader sees almost everything through the eyes or sensations of the protagonist, who feels things deeply. The story line is relegated to a lesser role, particularly in The House of Mist. Poetry seems to flow from this crystaline prose, and Bombal uses repeated symbolic images (such as mist, rain, and wind) with good effect and in an elegant simple style. The heroine of The House of Mist lives most of the time in a dream world of her own fashioning, far from the reality of her unhappy marriage. In The Shrouded Woman the protagonist lies dead in her coffin, viewing the chief mourners who come by to see her one by one, reliving her love affairs and family relationships with a final clarity and futile wisdom. In "The Tree," her most famous story, the reader encounters not only a deep psychological analysis of a woman, but also an impressive technique of point counterpoint. While Brígida listens to a concert, her life and its tragedy unfold, evoked by the power of music.

During most of her life Bombal did not achieve the fame she deserved, although in her last years the Chilean government granted her a stipend. With the keen interest in the feminist movement in later years, her works were read and commented on more widely. (less)

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Books by Maria Luisa Bombal

Average rating: 3.82 · 361 ratings · 32 reviews · 8 distinct works

	La Amortajada 3.67 avg rating — 146 ratings — published 1986 — 4 editions	My rating:
	La última niebla 3.65 avg rating — 99 ratings — published 1971 — 2 editions	My rating:
	House of Mist: A Novel 4.13 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 2008	My rating:
	House of Mist and the Shrouded Woman Two Novels: Two Novels by Maria Luisa Bombal 4.23 avg rating — 39 ratings — published 1984 — 3 editions	My rating:
	New Islands: And Other Stories by Maria Luisa Bombal, Jorge Luis Borges (Foreword by) 3.86 avg rating — 36 ratings — published 1983 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Obras Completas 4.23 avg rating — 13 ratings	My rating:
	Obras Completas 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2005	My rating:
	Latin American Writers by Various, Isabel Allende, Rosario Castellanos 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2000	My rating:

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Quotes by Maria Luisa Bombal

“Y puede, puede así, que las muertes no sean todas iguales. Puede que hasta después de la muerte, todos sigamos distintos caminos.”
― Maria Luisa Bombal, La Amortajada

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“Para ser inteligente, hay que empezar desde chica.

To be intelligent, one must start young.”
― Maria Luisa Bombal