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Aura
Felipe Montero is employed in the house of an aged widow to edit her deceased husband's memoirs. There Felipe meets her beautiful green-eyed niece, Aura. His passion for Aura and his gradual discovery of the true relationship between the young woman and her aunt propel the story to its extraordinary conclusion.
Paperback, 1st, 62 pages
Published
June 1st 1998
by Ediciones Era
(first published June 21st 1962)
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شگفت، کوتاه، میخکوب کننده، تحسینبرانگیز
A little crazy on the foreshadowing.........lots of people find the use of the 2nd person and the switch from future/present odd, but remember, when it was written, that was some innovative stuff! The switch into the present comes at key moments, placing the reader right into the action. Also, since the old Mexico/new Mexico and their blend was one of Fuente's favorite topics, it's more interesting when it's written like this--I much prefer it to the 1000-page tome with every piece of historical...more
Un libro corto, pero con una historia atrapante.
Un cuento con ligeros retazos de mística, simbolismos y sensualidad. Carlos Fuentes planta de manera grandiosa y desde la primera frase, un misterio que se va palpando de forma exponencial con el transcurso de las hojas hasta su conclusión con el punto final. Una historia que, aunque corta, logra una buena relación entre el lector y sus personajes por desarollarse en un ambiente cerrado (una casa) y el papel muy peculiar que tiene cada uno de sus p...more
Un cuento con ligeros retazos de mística, simbolismos y sensualidad. Carlos Fuentes planta de manera grandiosa y desde la primera frase, un misterio que se va palpando de forma exponencial con el transcurso de las hojas hasta su conclusión con el punto final. Una historia que, aunque corta, logra una buena relación entre el lector y sus personajes por desarollarse en un ambiente cerrado (una casa) y el papel muy peculiar que tiene cada uno de sus p...more
1 like · like · see review
آئورا نوشتهی مشهورترین نویسندهی مکزیک کارلوس فوئنتس است. نثری قوی دارد. در فضاسازی و تصویرپردازی خیرهکننده، اثر کوتاه است اما پربار، بهاندازهی یک رمان پربرگ لبریز از ماجراست. از ماجرا پرسیدید؟ زنی پیر، مرد و زنی جوان. در خانهای که از آن بوی گذشته می آید. نیرویی که خانه را برپا نگه داشته، یادهای گذشته است. پیرزن میخواهد، خاطرات شوهرش را مرد جوان یا یکی بازنویسی کند. شوهرش، یک ژنرال، که در فرانسه تحصیل کرده، همراه ناپلئونِ سوم دوران دوم امپراتوری را به چشم خود، دیده. کار از نگاه مرد چنگی...more
Esta “novella” de Carlos Fuentes parece ser una clásica y no es muy larga (~72 paginas). La leí en una noche por leerla, más que por haber estado realmente picada, porque me parece que sigue a su género demasiado de cerca, tan de cerca que es casi totalmente previsible. Al leerla me recordó muchísimo al estilo de Edgar Allan Poe. Al final, en la parte de atrás del libro me fijé que Newsweek asoció a esta novella de “horror” (que realmente no me causó horror para nada...tal vez para su época si)...more
4 likes · like · see review
I have to say that what I disliked the most about this book is the short phrases in second person. I am not saying they are bad but they simply aren't what I like. I don't like narrators in second person but then again this isn't my choice.
I felt that this book is trying to portray the will to live and the fear to death. Almost everyone want to keep living or is scared to death to some point. We can't bring back our youth once it is gone so we use another method to "stay alive": We have childre...more
I felt that this book is trying to portray the will to live and the fear to death. Almost everyone want to keep living or is scared to death to some point. We can't bring back our youth once it is gone so we use another method to "stay alive": We have childre...more
An easy contender for the best fictional work I've read. I will never give away my own personal copy. In no other novel have I seen such brilliant use of second person point of view.
You are the protagonist, and like a spell, the novel convinces you, from the very start, that you are this man, looking for a job sorting the written documents of an hideous old widow's late husband. You are bothered by her loneliness, but magnetically attracted to her young niece, Aura. Her beauty convinces you to...more
You are the protagonist, and like a spell, the novel convinces you, from the very start, that you are this man, looking for a job sorting the written documents of an hideous old widow's late husband. You are bothered by her loneliness, but magnetically attracted to her young niece, Aura. Her beauty convinces you to...more
Aura was an incredible read. I really enjoyed this book. In the past, I have had a really hard time with Magical Realism, but for the first time I feel that I connected with the genre. I think that I was able to grasp the presence of Magical Realism in this text because of the contextualization of the magical and fantastic in this novella. Fuentes does a wonderful job of introducing the presence of a surreal connection between the past and the present. I think that his utilization of fate, histo...more
La opinión de este libro proviene del blog "Antología de Karuna": http://lilithcrystal.blogspot.mx/2011...
Este libro corto y estructurado en cinco capítulos, cuya narrativa fluída y dirigida en segunda persona hacia el personaje de Felipe Montero hacen que el lector le dé un punto a favor en este libro. Con respecto al ambiente, ayuda en la historia crear una atmósfera demasiado oscura, y esta a la vez hace que los personajes actúen y expresen sus sentimientos con una excelente verosimiltud.
El a...more
Este libro corto y estructurado en cinco capítulos, cuya narrativa fluída y dirigida en segunda persona hacia el personaje de Felipe Montero hacen que el lector le dé un punto a favor en este libro. Con respecto al ambiente, ayuda en la historia crear una atmósfera demasiado oscura, y esta a la vez hace que los personajes actúen y expresen sus sentimientos con una excelente verosimiltud.
El a...more
I dont know if Is should classify this as a very short book or a short story.
Its the first I've read of a Nobel Prize Winner in a long time. It is fun and intriguing. The book delivers a very descriptive but easy-going look of Mexico City, and over all, of the center of the capital.
Although it's descriptive, it is not thick or boring. The book takes you through the life of a man called Felipe Montero and his search for susteinance through a new job, the narrative is very like Carlos Fuentes.
You...more
Its the first I've read of a Nobel Prize Winner in a long time. It is fun and intriguing. The book delivers a very descriptive but easy-going look of Mexico City, and over all, of the center of the capital.
Although it's descriptive, it is not thick or boring. The book takes you through the life of a man called Felipe Montero and his search for susteinance through a new job, the narrative is very like Carlos Fuentes.
You...more
Aura was an incredible read. I really enjoyed this book. In the past, I have had a really hard time with Magical Realism, but for the first time I feel that I connected with the genre. I think that I was able to grasp the presence of Magical Realism in this text because of the contextualization of the magical and fantastic in this novella. Fuentes does a wonderful job of introducing the presence of a surreal connection between the past and the present. I think that his utilization of fate, histo...more
Aura is certainly an interesting book that takes you on a journey with its protagonist, Felipe Montero, as he discovers his destiny in the house of Consuelo and Aura. During his time there, he discovers not only secrets about the relationship between the elderly widow and her niece, but also secrets about himself and his identity that no one saw coming. While I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others, it was not my favorite book because of the horror or creepy aspects of it. The proble...more
Aura is a novel that takes the reader on a journey into a world where only in the obscurity of the uncertain can one find true bliss. The protagonist, Felipe Montero, is immediately plunged into a place where the past and present become indiscernible, and impossibility becomes obsolete. What initially was a just a job opportunity becomes a love affair that oddly enough, he is repeating for at least the second time. This novel does an impressive job of questioning the divide between reality and f...more
"Aura," by Carlos Fuentes, is a surprising and engaging novel. Fuentes is obviously willing to experiment in novelistic style: most jarringly, he uses the second person narrative in order to tell the story of Felipe Montero, a young man who is lured into a house of secrets. The second person narrative causes the reader to involuntarily become deeply committed to the main character. It also creates powerful suspense throughout the novel: the reader's sensation is not passive voyeurism, but a real...more
I loved The Death of Artemio Cruz when I read it last year, so I was deeply saddened reading of Carlos Fuentes's recent death. Today I went out and grabbed this little gem to read more of his work. Aura is a little bit of a Gothic mystery, a little bit of a romance, and completely engaging. An unemployed historian reads a help wanted ad that seems written especially for him. He presents himself for the interview at an eerie old house in the city's center and learns that he is to edit the memoirs...more
2 likes · like · see review
"Aura" is a short story (or novella depending on what you consider to be the length of one) which reads a lot like an Edgar Allan Poe story. It's heavily gothic in tone, has many horror elements, and has a supernatural twist at the end.
A young man called Felipe applies for a job translating the writings of a long dead General, husband to his employer - an extremely old woman called Consuelo - before she too dies. Insisting he stay with her during his work in her decrepit and dark house, he falls...more
A young man called Felipe applies for a job translating the writings of a long dead General, husband to his employer - an extremely old woman called Consuelo - before she too dies. Insisting he stay with her during his work in her decrepit and dark house, he falls...more
Sep 21, 2011
Clark Zlotchew
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
I read this in the original Spanish, and then in a bilingual (Spanish-English, facing pages) version. This short novel, or novelette, is a jewel. It is packed with the feeling of an unbreakable, relentless destiny in store for a young man in Mexico City. Felipe Montero, a public school teacher, answers an want add in the newspaper because the description of the person being sought for a much higher-paying job seems to be an exact description of Montero, as though it were specifically reaching ou...more
4 likes · like · see review
My first read of Carlos Fuentes. Short, intense and mysterious. A man gets a job to prepare the memoir of an old woman’s late husband in a dark house with faint lights. He reads about their youth & relationship from the papers. He happens to be in love with her niece ‘Aura’ with green eyes almost similar to one the old woman used to be in her youth. Along doing his job, he pursues to free the ‘Aura’ from the wretched old woman for ‘Aura’ asked him to meet her in old woman's room in her absen...more
Although magical realism is a really hard concept to wrap your finger around, this novella by Carlos Fuentes embodies it completely. If spanish is not your first language, as it is not for me, you should not be scared away by the language barrier because Fuentes' simple and to-the-point writing style is easily understood. I was amazed by how much he fit into under a hundred pages, somehow combining the themes of death, reality, magic, love, and passion while maintaining amazing quality of writin...more
Jul 02, 2007
Mike
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who likes David Lynch films
Wow, that one was straight out of David Lynch’s diseased imaginings. It was kind of like a beautiful nightmare, complete with some pretty gnarly animal cruelty and weird voodoo magic. I totally imagined this book in stark black and white, with only Aura’s robe standing out bright green. I also found out a pretty cool factoid that was penciled in the margins of my book: in Spanish, “Aura” means “gentle breeze” or “vulture/buzzard bird”. Cool.
Though I have read second person narration before, Aura is the first book to employ this literary technique that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Fuentes basically forces us as readers to put ourselves in Montero's shoes, an experience that while at times terrifying ultimately enhanced my reading of the novel tremendously. The second person narration made me feel almost trapped in the story, which made me uncomfortable – though intriguingly so. Reading the story as if I was actively participating made...more
Creepy and frightening? Reminiscent of Poe? On a pendulum with Poe on one end and your favorite Stephen King ordeal on the other, I'd put Aura somewhere in the middle----which is to say, putting it on par with Poe is like comparing cherries to persimmons. The levels of tension and writing are not equivalent.
How many more books can I read that employ the basic device of mistaken, switched, transferred, or double identity?????---in all its forms! Someone needs to write a book with 332 characters w...more
How many more books can I read that employ the basic device of mistaken, switched, transferred, or double identity?????---in all its forms! Someone needs to write a book with 332 characters w...more
Aura es una obra corta pero llena de misterio, sorpresas, y hasta amor.
Pero lo que verdaderamente hace que esta obra sobresalga entre otras obras del realismo mágico es el uso de segunda persona singular en la narrativa. Es a través de esta técnica que Fuentes consigue mantener al lector confundido y en suspenso hasta el momento en el que él decide que podemos saber lo que en verdad esta sucediendo en la casa en Donceles 815.
Esta narrativa cause que el lector se sienta que es el personaje mismo...more
Pero lo que verdaderamente hace que esta obra sobresalga entre otras obras del realismo mágico es el uso de segunda persona singular en la narrativa. Es a través de esta técnica que Fuentes consigue mantener al lector confundido y en suspenso hasta el momento en el que él decide que podemos saber lo que en verdad esta sucediendo en la casa en Donceles 815.
Esta narrativa cause que el lector se sienta que es el personaje mismo...more
إذا قرأت إعلاناً في جريدة وشعرت أنّ هذا الإعلان موجّه خصيصاً لك، لا تستغرب .. قد يكون اعتقادك صائباً.
هكذا شعر فيليب مونتيرو عندما قرأ الاعلان "مطلوب شاب متخصص في التاريخ، أنيق، يعمل بضمير، يجيد اللغة الفرنسية الدارجة اجاد
تامة." حدّث نفسه قائلا إن هذا الاعلان ينقصه اسمه بالبنط العريض!
رواية تشبه الاحلام عندما تشتبك، إذا أردت الشعور بالرعب افعل ذلك، وإذا أردت الانغماس في الشكوك مع بطلها افعل ذلك أيضاً.
ما انصحكم بالابتعاد عنه من جهة أخرى هو قراءة هذه الرواية بسرعة، حجمها الصغير نسبيا -٦٠ صفحة - مخ...more
هكذا شعر فيليب مونتيرو عندما قرأ الاعلان "مطلوب شاب متخصص في التاريخ، أنيق، يعمل بضمير، يجيد اللغة الفرنسية الدارجة اجاد
تامة." حدّث نفسه قائلا إن هذا الاعلان ينقصه اسمه بالبنط العريض!
رواية تشبه الاحلام عندما تشتبك، إذا أردت الشعور بالرعب افعل ذلك، وإذا أردت الانغماس في الشكوك مع بطلها افعل ذلك أيضاً.
ما انصحكم بالابتعاد عنه من جهة أخرى هو قراءة هذه الرواية بسرعة، حجمها الصغير نسبيا -٦٠ صفحة - مخ...more
You could probably read this book in an hour. A bizarre love story told in second person. You/Felipe get hired to ghost-write the ending of a man's memoirs by the man's 109-year-old widow. Her house is almost completely pitch-black inside, and her niece, Aura, lives with her. You/Felipe (the protagonist) fall in love with Aura and from there things proceed to get weird.
2 likes · like · see review
Carlos Fuentes’ 1962 novella AURA is something of a ghost story and a play on identity. Felipe Montero is a Mexican academic who is attracted one day by a classified ad promising an unusually high salary to whomever can speak French and fulfill secretarial duties. He goes to the address specified in the advertisement and discovers that he'll be working for the ancient widow Consuelo Llorente, editing the memoires of her late husband who fought on the wrong side in the 19th century and suffered e...more
Aura is a powerful shorty story with an underlying tenebrious vibe. With the shadow of Cortazar, Fuentes creates a story of a young man trapped within the confinements of a physical and emotional setting that has the power to invert and trastorn the most elemental forces of everyday life. The unsettling of time and place is the driving force behind the suspense that takes the reader through the pages of doubts and darkness that the young protagonist must endure. Set in Mexico City, a young schol...more
أورا
قراءتي الأولى لكارلوس فوينتس، تقترب الآن الذكرى الأولى لرحيله – توفي في 15 مايو 2012-، وها أنا اختار هذه الرواية الصغيرة جداً – 64 صفحة – للتعرف على هذا المكسيكي العملاق الذي يعتبر بلا منازع روائي المكسيك الأول، وأحد عمالقة الرواية في أمريكا الجنوبية والعالم، ورغم أن له مكاناً مميزاً في مكتبتي، حيث تحتل رواياته (موت أرتيمو كروث) و(الغرينغو العجوز) و(الحملة) و(كرسي الرئاسة) مكاناً بارزاً في رف الأدب اللاتيني إلا أنني اخترت أحدث ما حصلت عليه من كتبه كمدخل لقراءته، ولم أندم أبداً ويبدو أنني مو...more
قراءتي الأولى لكارلوس فوينتس، تقترب الآن الذكرى الأولى لرحيله – توفي في 15 مايو 2012-، وها أنا اختار هذه الرواية الصغيرة جداً – 64 صفحة – للتعرف على هذا المكسيكي العملاق الذي يعتبر بلا منازع روائي المكسيك الأول، وأحد عمالقة الرواية في أمريكا الجنوبية والعالم، ورغم أن له مكاناً مميزاً في مكتبتي، حيث تحتل رواياته (موت أرتيمو كروث) و(الغرينغو العجوز) و(الحملة) و(كرسي الرئاسة) مكاناً بارزاً في رف الأدب اللاتيني إلا أنني اخترت أحدث ما حصلت عليه من كتبه كمدخل لقراءته، ولم أندم أبداً ويبدو أنني مو...more
Un trabajo muy bien pagado, un trabajo que se ajusta tan perfectamente a ti que es increíble que otra persona que no fueras tu pudiera tomarlo y desempeñarlo, un trabajo que te llevara a la calle de Donceles, en busca del número 815.
Una anciana te ofrecerá cuatro mil pesos por un trabajo de historiador, necesita a alguien con conocimientos en francés y parece que con tu nombre inscrito en la frente Montero. ¿Conejos, ratas, unos ojos hipnóticos? Solo incertidumbre verás en medios de la ceguera q...more
Una anciana te ofrecerá cuatro mil pesos por un trabajo de historiador, necesita a alguien con conocimientos en francés y parece que con tu nombre inscrito en la frente Montero. ¿Conejos, ratas, unos ojos hipnóticos? Solo incertidumbre verás en medios de la ceguera q...more
Es un libro extraordinario. A mi me gusta el uso de la segunda persona. Esta hace el libro mas real como si tu esta narrando el libro. Parece un cuento de horror. Sin embargo, es necesario de entender la historia con Maximiliano porque el libro es basado en su esposa y sus caracteristicas. En realidad, es uno de los mejores libros que he leido y ahora quiero leer mas de Fuentes en el futuro.
The book is extraordinary. I love the use of second person. It makes the book more real, as if you are nar...more
The book is extraordinary. I love the use of second person. It makes the book more real, as if you are nar...more
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Carlos Fuentes Macías was a Mexican writer and one of the best-known novelists and essayists of the 20th century in the Spanish-speaking world. Fuentes influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.
Fuentes was born in Panama City, Panama; his parents were Mexican. Due to his father being a diplomat, during his childhoo...more
More about Carlos Fuentes...
Fuentes was born in Panama City, Panama; his parents were Mexican. Due to his father being a diplomat, during his childhoo...more
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“Le démon aussi était un ange, avant...”
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“Originality' is the sickness of modernity that wishes to see itself as something new, always new, in order continually to witness its own birth. In doing so, modernity is that fashionable illusion which only speaks to death”
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هیچ تمنایی معصومانه نیست_زیرا ما نه تنها تمنا می
کنیم بلکه این تمنا را نیز داریم که پس از دست یافتن به آنچه تمنا کرده ایم دگرگونش کنیم
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یاد نادیا "آن...more
updated Jun 13, 2008 12:07pm
Jun 14, 2008 06:32am