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17th out of 285 books
—
232 voters
La casa de Bernarda Alba
The Focus Student Editions are designed for Spanish language courses in literature and culture. Prepared with non-native Spanish speakers in mind, these editions include an introduction (in Spanish), the complete work, and linguistic and cultural notes in Spanish, a current bibliography and study questions.
This Focus student edition is a Spanish drama of women in the villa...more
This Focus student edition is a Spanish drama of women in the villa...more
Paperback, 96 pages
Published
May 1st 2005
by Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co.
(first published January 1st 1936)
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Bernarda Alba's house is a kind of jail, and everyone there, family and servants alike, is her prisoner. (For Bernarda's mother, the metaphor is literally true.) The play begins after the death of Bernarda's husband Antonio, about whom we hear little but whose influence can be detected in the behaviour of his relatives. These are: Bernarda, her mother and his five daughters, not all of them Bernarda's; and when first we encounter the daughters they are even gloomier than might be expected of the...more
I didn`t read the book, I didn`t watch the play: there is a movie directed by Mario Camus, which I enjoyed greatly, and judging by other reviews I think I haven`t missed much from the plot.
I came to write this because I am puzzled that so many people regard this as a "feminist play" or as an "allegory of Franco`s dictatorship". Amazing: to begin with, seems like the play was written in 1936, BEFORE Franco came to power. God knows Spain was not the perfect democracy before Franco, but there was...more
I came to write this because I am puzzled that so many people regard this as a "feminist play" or as an "allegory of Franco`s dictatorship". Amazing: to begin with, seems like the play was written in 1936, BEFORE Franco came to power. God knows Spain was not the perfect democracy before Franco, but there was...more
Ideally, I would like to rate The House of Bernarda Alba 3 1/2 (vs. only three) stars. I was intrigued by the setting (small village in southern Spain), the period (eve of Spanish Civil War), and themes (e.g., family dysfunction, social mores, sibling rivalry, parent willing to make her daughters' lives unbearable if it permits her to maintain appearances and the high opinion of neighbors she openly despises).
While Bernarda Alba the character is a hateful so-and-so, she is compelling and the st...more
While Bernarda Alba the character is a hateful so-and-so, she is compelling and the st...more
I really, really enjoyed this play; Lorca has created a truly memorable character in Bernarda Alba.
The play is especially poignant because of the daughters and their somewhat surreal existence in the house by themselves. The effect is definitely added to by the character of Maria Josefa who mimics a ghostly specter (a literal one, not symbolic; she is clearly a symbolic specter) of their future.
The action was wonderfully paced with periods of what could only be described as sour stills. The stil...more
The play is especially poignant because of the daughters and their somewhat surreal existence in the house by themselves. The effect is definitely added to by the character of Maria Josefa who mimics a ghostly specter (a literal one, not symbolic; she is clearly a symbolic specter) of their future.
The action was wonderfully paced with periods of what could only be described as sour stills. The stil...more
May 07, 2011
Amalie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
theatre fans
Shelves:
plays,
books-from-about-europe
This is the third piece in "rural trilogy" is by far superior than "Blood Wedding" and "Yerma" which I never finished. This one, as critics describes, is one of the finest dramas written in the twentieth century.
While "Yerma" and "Blood Wedding" focuses on a single female character, here we find all characters to be female except Pepe el Romano who acts as love interest of Bernarda's daughters and suitor of Angustias and "the lover" of Adela; never appears on stage but his actions create most o...more
While "Yerma" and "Blood Wedding" focuses on a single female character, here we find all characters to be female except Pepe el Romano who acts as love interest of Bernarda's daughters and suitor of Angustias and "the lover" of Adela; never appears on stage but his actions create most o...more
Of the three great tragedies written by Lorca, this is my least favorite. It is a feminist play in that the characters, with the exception of the male object of desire for the sisters in Bernarda Alba's house, are all female, and represent the various female archetypes in Spanish matriarchal society on the eve of the Spanish civil war.
Bernarda runs her house like a dictator. No one is free. She is violent, and limits free speech. She willfully ignores the failings of some ("Don't try to find out...more
Bernarda runs her house like a dictator. No one is free. She is violent, and limits free speech. She willfully ignores the failings of some ("Don't try to find out...more
May 03, 2009
Inma
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone interested in Lorca and Spanish literature
Recommended to Inma by:
it was around the house for me to read
It's all about passion. How your passion and emotions are treated by society and the people around you, how it feels inside you, how it makes you live and how it makes you die. The passions you have inside, how they need to come out for you to live. It kind of reminds me "Como agua para el chocolate" ("Like water for chocolate") but in a less poetic and more wild way, more primal, much more uncontrolled. In a way fate like. In a way like Lorca, too much emotions in a time were there was not that...more
A story about a mom who is so obsessed with keeping her family’s image blemish-free that she prevents her 5 daughters (ages ranging from mid 20s to late 30s) from making contact with the outside world. The girls are basically held hostages in their own home. One of her daughters, Angustias, is allowed to be visited by a suitor, but she can only meet with him from her bedroom window which contains bars as a barrier between them. Since this is the only man that is ever found on the grounds, you ca...more
Es capaz de sentarse encima de tu corazón y ver cómo te mueres durante un
año sin que se le cierre esa sonrisa fría que leva en su maldita cara..
año sin que se le cierre esa sonrisa fría que leva en su maldita cara..
I'm a little torn between giving this book three or four stars, I don't think it was a REALLY enjoyable read, but it was incredibly interesting, and I love reading passionate tales of Spanish love and hate. Augh, I just love Hispanic literature, it's so rustic and it smells so wonderfully and tastes so real. So I really enjoyed it (Or maybe I didn't and am just confusing it with my extreme love of Like Water for Chocolate which was AHHHHMAZINGG.)But I think I did like it,even if I didn't really...more
I'll never forget my first experience with this shattering drama. I was in junior high school, spending the night at a friend's house, and this play was on television. After the play, an actor recited Garcia Lorca's poem "Five in the Afternoon." I didn't understand the play at first, but I read it when I was in college and kept on reading Garcia Lorca. He has a dark vision of women's lives. The plays are difficult to engage with, but well worth the effort. He's a genius.
I did this for Spanish literature during studies at Secondary School and considering that it was written in a language that is not my first, it was relatively okay. After about five years some things are memoriable namely the constant fanning of the women representing not only the heat but their locked up passions/desires and also how the mother demanded that one her daughters should wash off the makeup from her face and of course who could forget the death at the end...
Debo admitir que Federico García Lorca es un excelente escritor y dramaturgo ya que "La casa de Bernarda Alba" ha sido una de las pocas novelas que me han llamado la atención desde las primeras escenas. Además de que tiene sus escenas cómicas, admiro la manera explícita en la que muestra las apariencias,el poder del dinero y los temas costumbristas de la vida diaria de las mujeres. A pesar de la ausencia de una figura masculina en los actos, es una novela muy completa y llena de emociones.
this book was about the mother, Bernarda Alba and her 5 daughters. The mother keeps her children on a very strict rule and it leads to many different events and emotions. One of the daughters gets engaged and all of the hcildren end up falling in love with him. The youngest daughter ends up having an affiar with him and she eventually kills herself. It is all about the struggle that this family endures because of how the mother brings them up.
Bernarda Alba is the ruler of her house, and Bernarda and the five daughters coexist in a sort of dictatorship broken up by tension and romantic entanglements. It is a fascinating, thrilling play and the characters are brilliantly developed by Lorca. One of the most interesting aspects is that all of the characters are women, with the exception of Pepe el Romano, who never appears on stage although his actions are integral to the plot.
Mar 09, 2011
Meagan
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
src-spring-2011,
2011-books
I wasn't expecting to like this play. We read it in my Spanish literature class, and I was dreading it the entire time. However, Lorca is surprisingly funny, and he writes with a depth and feeling that is incredible. I read the original Spanish version, so I can't comment on any English translation, but if you can read Spanish, this play, although somewhat depressing, is completely memorable. It is truly the star in Lorca's crown.
This being the second García Lorca dramatic work that I've read, I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised; it was not at all as painful to read as Yerma was. That said, maybe it's because I've only read masterpieces of the dramatic genre but I did not LOOOOOOOOOOVE this. If I did, this review would probably be a few lines longer.
PS. We read this in class and I was picked to read the part of Bernarda Alba. It was huge fun.
PS. We read this in class and I was picked to read the part of Bernarda Alba. It was huge fun.
De las pocas obra de teatro que he leido. (El teatro no es mi fuerte, y me cuesta leerlo...)
Nos la mandaron estudiar para la selectividad, y recuerdo que la leímos en unas cuantas clases, interpretando cada alumno a un personaje. Me gustó leerla de esa forma, se me hizo "fácil".
Le doy 4 estrellas porque recuerdo que me gustó, aunque no puedo decir mucho más después de todos estos años :P
Nos la mandaron estudiar para la selectividad, y recuerdo que la leímos en unas cuantas clases, interpretando cada alumno a un personaje. Me gustó leerla de esa forma, se me hizo "fácil".
Le doy 4 estrellas porque recuerdo que me gustó, aunque no puedo decir mucho más después de todos estos años :P
This is one of the plays I directed when I was an undergraduate student. We had fun bringing this story to life. The plot itself is hilarious and the characters are easy to relate to, hence the play was not a challenge for us to make.
The story shows that there are people who really strives to attain a good reputation no matter how silly they may seem.
All-in-all, it's a good play.
The story shows that there are people who really strives to attain a good reputation no matter how silly they may seem.
All-in-all, it's a good play.
To be honest, I have not actually read this book. I have watched the play about 4 times, the oddest one a musical with an all male cast. Five times counting a dance montage based on it.
And it is one of my favorite plays ever.
Dark, grim, you can almost taste the despair of the sisters trapped in their suffocating house with her ruthless mother.
And it is one of my favorite plays ever.
Dark, grim, you can almost taste the despair of the sisters trapped in their suffocating house with her ruthless mother.
It's so hard to rate a play like this one. It seems so short, and though the power of the story is there, I can't relate to it well in this form. I would love to see it performed--the set, costumes, and acting would make or break this. Personally, I can't translate the play as text into a performance in my head. Maybe kind of, but I'm not good at that.
To read this book and only think that the content of this book is a house fulll of women hungry for love is to only hear and not listen to the message that this book carries. If you want to know it you must take in consideration the author's life and the Spanish Civil War. If you understand the true message you must feel accomplished.
Muy buen libro, con una gran critica al costumbrismo y a las tradiciones ortodoxas. El libro hace referencia a como la sociedad se preocupa demasiado por lo que los demás piensen, en este caso, por lo que el pueblo piense. Bernarda trataba de aparentar que tenia dinero y que su familia estaba muy bien posicionada y no tenia ningún problema, algo que era mentira. Esto se puede ver en la actualidad, el como las personas les preocupa mas lo que los demás piensen y le dan menos importancia a lo que...more
I read this as a school assignment. The story is interesting. The reason I did not like it more was that it dealt with sexuality, suicide, killing a baby after it was born. If those topics interest you, or you would like to read about women whose only option in life is to marry, then this is a great book.
Finally finished something Spanish. It was slow to begin and as it's a play it's harder keep at but easier to understand. The end was really good and unexpected. I really like Federico Garcia Lorca and recommend his poetry as well, especially Muerte de Antoñito el Camborio.
Oh so different from Lorca's poetry! I love all the symbolism...especially with the characters' names. Yet, I have to say, after reading Lorca's poetry, this play leaves little left to be desired, especially with all the violence that one may not initially anticipate.
Simplemente y para acabar pronto:
La mejor obra de teatro de la ultima mitad del siglo XX en español. La Casa de Bernarda Alba es majestuosa y García Lorca le imprime un poder a Bernarda que jamas he podido ver en directo. Una obra perfecta.
La mejor obra de teatro de la ultima mitad del siglo XX en español. La Casa de Bernarda Alba es majestuosa y García Lorca le imprime un poder a Bernarda que jamas he podido ver en directo. Una obra perfecta.
For Spanish students, speakers and enthusiasts, this "obra" challenges the reader to gain an understanding of antiquated Spanish as well as dictatorship, mirroring that of Francisco Franco in Spain. Dramatic? Most definitely, but the scandalous nature, while not explicit at all, also makes this a very engaging read. This drama can be found online. Summertime would again be a great time to read this and continue working on Spanish skills!
a different kind of all books i have ever read!!
its a masterpiece fot this book category and its time!!!
nice to know that i have read it but its not a light book!!
very sad and the way the family lived those years...so oppressive
its a masterpiece fot this book category and its time!!!
nice to know that i have read it but its not a light book!!
very sad and the way the family lived those years...so oppressive
It is a book with a very strong content, but it shows that in that time women had no chance of being treated like actual human beings, for that reason Adela kills herself at the end of the book.
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Born in Fuente Vaqueros, Granada, Spain, June 5,1898; died near Granada, August 19,1936, García Lorca is Spain's most deeply appreciated and highly revered poet and dramatist. His murder by the Nationalists at the start of the Spanish civil war brought sudden international fame, accompanied by an excess of political rhetoric which led a later generation to question his merits; after the inevitable...more
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Nov 14, 2011 06:32pm