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Of Love and Other Demons

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 · rating details · 17,873 ratings · 743 reviews

On her twelfth birthday, Sierva Maria, the only child of a decaying noble family in an eighteenth-century South American seaport, is bitten by a rabid dog. Believed to be possessed, she is brought to a convent for observation. And into her cell stumbles Father Cayetano Delaura, who has already dreamed about a girl with hair trailing after her like a bridal train. As he ten...more

Paperback, 160 pages

Published May 2nd 1995 by Penguin Group (USA) (first published January 1st 1994)

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One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

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The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Favorite Magical Realist Novels

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Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

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Feb 12, 2013 Samadrita rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of magical realism and Marquez

Shelves: magical-realism-surrealism, nobel-laureates, latin-american-literature, romance, human-drama, novella-short-stories, awesomesauce, semi-favorites, re-readable, real-issues-fake-people, controversial-or-social-taboos, 1001-and-more, columbia

I have always drawn parallels between Marquez and Murakami not only because of the common element of magical realism so discernible in their works, but also because of their talent for splendid imagery.
But it goes without saying, there's a pronounced difference between their styles as well.

While I understood perfectly well that Murakami likes to crack open the spine of a city bustling with life and activity on the surface and fish out its soul from the intimidating depths of its anatomy, Marque...more I have always drawn parallels between Marquez and Murakami not only because of the common element of magical realism so discernible in their works, but also because of their talent for splendid imagery.
But it goes without saying, there's a pronounced difference between their styles as well.

While I understood perfectly well that Murakami likes to crack open the spine of a city bustling with life and activity on the surface and fish out its soul from the intimidating depths of its anatomy, Marquez had me stumped with One Hundred Years of Solitude. While Murakami tries to dissect the universal human condition with so much empathy, does Marquez only seek to tell licentious tales?

Even though I enjoyed reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, I remember feeling quite overwhelmed by the time I was done with it. I couldn't quite fathom all its underlying implications. It was much too immense in its scope.

But finally with my second Marquez book, I think I've succeeded in my endeavors to decode his writing, to a certain extent.

Besides having that eerie, surreal quality characteristic of Marquez's style, Of love and other demons is a subtle reproof against religious dogmas and race divides.
It is like an ephemeral tapestry of breath-taking beauty, woven with garishly loud colors.
As you flip through the pages of this little gem, you are transported to an alternative plane of reality where absurd things make wonderful sense and commonplace affairs of everyday reality seem inconsequential. Where images of a marquis' ageing wife engaging in wild orgies with her African slaves and allusions to sodomy do not make the reader recoil in horror. Where the instance of a 36 year-old man wanting to make love to a 12 year-old girl, makes you think of a doomed romance but not pedophilia. Because by that time Marquez would have cast his magic spell on you and whisked you away to a neverland where social conventions and the established notions of morality are immaterial.
He becomes the puppeteer, the illusionist and the enthralled readers can only follow his lead and believe in what he wants them to believe.

While I've given both One Hundred Years of Solitude and Of love and other demons 4 stars, I have to admit I liked this book much more than the former.
I'm hoping Marquez will grow on me. (less)

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Jul 08, 2012 K. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-cent, historical, hit-me-in-the-heart, identity-and-psychology, own, poetry, shorts, society-culture-and-politics, rest-of-the-world-lit

Marquez begins his story with a note. In this note, he describes arriving at a convent in the process of being emptied and turned into a luxury hotel. Laborers unearthed "three generations of bishops and abbesses and other eminent personages" until, at last, they came to a niche of the high altar where they found the tomb of a twelve-year old girl called Sierva Maria de Todos Los Angeles. She had hair the color of copper and it flowed out of her head twenty-two metres long.

And so a story is bor...more Marquez begins his story with a note. In this note, he describes arriving at a convent in the process of being emptied and turned into a luxury hotel. Laborers unearthed "three generations of bishops and abbesses and other eminent personages" until, at last, they came to a niche of the high altar where they found the tomb of a twelve-year old girl called Sierva Maria de Todos Los Angeles. She had hair the color of copper and it flowed out of her head twenty-two metres long.

And so a story is born. Marquez imagines a life for a two hundred year old corpse. He replenishes her flesh and restores her bones and puts her through a time that can only be received with a heavy heart: Sierva Maria is born and neglected, then bitten by a dog, thought to have caught rabies, put through tumultuous medical examinations (which include drinking her own urine), then thought to be possessed, locked up in a convent presided over by a stern and irrational abbess, is then introduced to a priest, falls in love, and...well, this is the part when you read the story yourself.

Love, here, is equated to illness...demonic possession to be exact. Marquez is an author of magic realism and the lines between the realms are effectively fogged. Is Sierva Maria possessed or she not? The complexities of this question is impressively elicited in readers. Church and science are reflected in two astute and interesting characters.

But that is not truly the epitome of this story. For it is about love and the turmoil of it that surrounds these characters.

Sierva Maria is a young girl born to the Marquis. She is dismissed as a baby and left to fend for herself. It is a slave, the housekeeper of slaves, named Dominga de Adviento who takes the child into her care. Waking, sleeping and everything in between, Sierva does with the slaves; she learns their languages, their dance, their songs and traditions, rituals and beliefs. She is a feral child who slits the throats of goats and eats their organs. And it is the cruelest of actions to take her away from it all, only to be abused, misunderstood, rejected, and perceived as a demonic being. But she is a child, with an altered imagination because she was not raised with her people. She does not conform to general etiquette, she does not act, think, or speak like her color. She is different because she was orphaned by her living parents. And when one of them decides to extend his heart, it is much too late. Sierva represents the abandoned in all of us; the part left alone for so long it's forgotten to wish. She has no concept of love or truth, and when she finally does receive it, it is from a source forbidden with no future.

Perhaps, however, the storyline I found most gripping, with an almost all-consuming fear, was that of the Marquis. He grows up just as discarded as Sierva, with the exception that he had social, familial, and political obligations to fulfill. Having grown up in disappointment and inadequacy, he is turned numb by the sudden loss of his wife; numb just as he was learning to feel. He becomes a widower and this defines him for much too long of his life. He grows complacent, laxed and forgets to live. He lets life and its glory slip through his fingers without a single taste. Near the end, when he searches for his estranged second wife, if only "so they might at least each have someone to die with" -- the absolute desperation and loneliness of the image and the words and the intent and the deeply-rooted truth behind it was enough to make my heart constrict in sympathy, empathy, and panic. It made me hesitate in turning the page, made my eyes linger on the period, wanting but scared to read the coming passage. Would this bend my heart anymore than it already has? I was in a battle...afraid to consume the story that had me oppressively, yet tenderly, facing a mirror. (less)

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May 25, 2007 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Marquez fans, lovers of beautiful language

Shelves: fiction, owned, 20th-century-postwar-to-late

This was not the first book of Marquez's that I have read. I read Love in the Time of Cholera when I was in my late teens. I found it so utterly surreal and unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I wasn't sure if I liked it, precisely, but I knew that I wanted more. I was gripped by it, possessed by it, which was not quite the same experience as 'liking' a novel, exactly.

The next one I picked up after that was this one. Of Love and Other Demons. I can safely say that I felt the same way...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Lavinia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, fiction

Yummy, captivating reading, from the very first sentence. There's a lot of blah about the book, just look around, plenty of reviews and opinions; everything is magic of course, and the story telling*, oh! the story telling is absolutely fantastic, so I'll just make a confession: I have a terrible, secret passion for priests who fall madly in love and run away with the object of their desire, go nuts or do something crazy. Here, not so secret any more.

*mental debate on who's a better story teller...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Jason added it

Shelves: read-2011

I must admit that while I enjoyed this immensely, I did not enjoy it as much as most other Marquez. It isn't just that I have grown tired of his pedophilia storylines, though that doesn't help, but rather that this story doesn't do as interesting job of blending the real and the fantastic and the moment that opens the story, so beautiful in its absurdity, seems to bear little resemblance to the story that follows, which is a shame because a concentration on the fantastic, rather than the mundane...more

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Dec 12, 2007 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book starts off very slowly and almost slyly, as if someone has started telling a long-winded story and you're really not paying attention, and then, halfway through the story you realize that you're hanging onto every word. If Garcia Marquez explored the metaphor or love as a disease in "Love in the Time of Cholera", then here he centers his story around the metaphor of love as madness and demonic possession. I think the metaphor actually works better than the cholera one. This book feels...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Denis rated it 4 of 5 stars

My introduction to Garcia Marquez. Loved it from the first sentence to the last, and fell immediately under the spell of his famous "magical realism" (which infuses the story itself as well as the way it's written). It is magical indeed, and wonderfully sad as the love stories we want to read about should be - it's also, despite being relatively short, epic in a way that, I sense, is typical of Garcia Marquez' world. Some could reduce it to a fairy tale for adult - it is really much more than th...more

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Nov 03, 2011 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I don't regret having delayed completing Of Love and Other Demons for several years as I don't think I would have appreciated this novella half of much when I first started. My impression then was that this was a slow-moving story with much description but little happening. How wrong I was!

The title is so apt as this is an exploration of how obsessions can take precedence over basic humanity. The enigma that is Sierva Maria is the catalyst for upheaval in a coastal Colombian town (a fictionalise...more I don't regret having delayed completing Of Love and Other Demons for several years as I don't think I would have appreciated this novella half of much when I first started. My impression then was that this was a slow-moving story with much description but little happening. How wrong I was!

The title is so apt as this is an exploration of how obsessions can take precedence over basic humanity. The enigma that is Sierva Maria is the catalyst for upheaval in a coastal Colombian town (a fictionalised Cartagena) of a couple of centuries ago: bitten by a rabid dog but surviving against the odds, her very existence seems to infect all she comes into contact with. Many of these individuals then exhibit a rabidity that has nothing to do with a physical ailment and everything to do with diseases of the mind: irrational superstition, jealousy, inhumanity and, yes, love, but obsessive love akin to that of a stalker.

Young Sierva Maria gets taken by her father to the convent of the Santa Clara nuns where she is imprisoned before her exorcism, an exorcism that is deemed necessary because she speaks various African languages and appears different, from her long unshorn hair to her unconventional behaviours. Marquez exposes several human frailties in the local populace, from xenophobia to snobbery and from drug addiction to political expediency. After her incarceration and the witnessing of the eclipse of the sun the downfall of Sierva Maria is sealed by the reverberations her mere existence has occasioned: the unexplained deaths of the innocent and not-so-innocent, the collapse of the interrogating bishop, the leading astray of the studious young priest.

In amongst it all are the magical events that one can almost accept as real, epitomised by the belief that hair continues to grow after death when the young girl's tomb is opened in the mid-twentieth century. Such examples of so-called magical realism are of course metaphors, for Marquez is indicating that stories and rumours also grow even and especially after death. In all of this the one truly rational voice is that of the atheist Spanish Jew who, though he has escaped to the colonies, is still the subject of suspicion and hatred. In this scholarly and gruff medical man we can dimly make out an authorial figure, an outsider whose observations point out the absurdities of conventional thinking and living.

My first Marquez tale, Of Love and Other Demons is beautifully narrated, certainly in this translation by Edith Grossman, with memorable characters and profound questioning of the status quo. As the tragedy moves towards its inevitable conclusion, with a shocking short burst of violence, Marquez still manages to infuse the tale with a sense of optimism despite its critique of human nature. If he manages to avoid any real suggestion of paedophilia (one of the charges levelled recently by the Russian Orthodox Church against his writings) it is done with enough subtlety and ambiguity to escape the notice of all but a few suspicious minds and certainly with no suggestion of approval. The real tragedy is that so few people visit Sierva Maria with the love that all humans need and want, and that those who do, like her father, are often too late.

The original convent which inspired the news story which inspired the novella is still standing and still functioning as a hotel, and Gabo readers make literary pilgrimages to stay there and marvel at the crypt where Sierva Maria de Todos Los Angeles was buried in a niche. For me her real memorial is this beautifully crafted fable.(less)

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May 08, 2013 Ian rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

It seems this is one you either love or are indifferent to. I found myself leaning toward the indifferent. The underlying story of a young girl being removed from the comforts of wealth based upon misdiagnosis and ignorance is of itself fascinating, the scene setting fabulous. To overlay that with a doomed romance between a handsome priest and a prepubescent girl is heady stuff, then further layered with themes of the demonic and the insane, and yet it simply failed to enliven my senses. Maybe p...more

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Jun 27, 2008 Zoe rated it 5 of 5 stars

I saw this described in another review as “mesmerizing.” Yes, it was mesmerizing. It’s made my Favorites list, but I can’t really describe it. It starts off with an author’s note. The author prefaces the story with a description of a visit he had made to a crypt. When a tomb is opened & 2,000 years worth of live, copper colored hair spills out Gabriel is suddenly reminded of a story he heard long ago.

In this book he embellishes on the story of a saint, a young girl who died at age 12 from r...more

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Jan 18, 2008 Andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: book groups, mystical realism fans, anyone wanting a good book to interpret the heck out of

Maybe this book had only a 3-strar appeal for me since I read it over a month during my lunch breaks - at a new job. Needless to say other things were probably on my mind. I enjoyed the ending, though I can imagine most people wont, because I think life tends to be more disappointing in the ways illustrated in the story. (Okay, probably not so extreme, like dying on a path to nowhere and being eaten by buzzards!). As always, I love the possible myriad interpretations that mystical realism offers...more

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Jul 18, 2007 Maya rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone and everyone!

this is my favorite book of all time. i really like marquez and how he mixes the fantastic with everyday life. it's like he and his characters are from another planet... one that's very similar to earth, but just a bit off. like a planet you'd find on an episode of sliders. (i feel that recently i've been using sliders to describe a lot of things...)

anyway, i can read this book over and over. it's been a while since i read it so i would feel silly giving it a comprehensive review here, but maybe...more

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Aug 13, 2007 Alexia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: dreamers

Almost a fairytale, this book is an incredible bed time story. Makes you wonder if Garcia Marquez was told this story by his Grandmother or another elder woman in his village. It is dark and sad and ultimately love becomes a demon. A demon that you can't live with or without. Despite it's depressing denouement Garcia Marquez is one of my favorite writers for his lyrical and romantic sense of plot. The barriers between the living and the dead are sheer at best and the extreme power and control of...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Jelena rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My mom let me have her copy of “Of Love and Other Demons” when I was twelve I think. That was my first encounter with magic realism and the beginning of a never-ending love affair. I was mesmerised, hypnotised, possessed by it (no pun intended, but it works nicely on this one).

I was captured by the first visual element, the inconceivably long hair on a centuries-old corpse, and from that moment on the story of a young girl with indifferent parents, raised by slaves, potentially rabies-infected,...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Andrea Siso rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Quizás sea mi parcialidad a las historias románticas que me haga decir esto, pero realmente siento que Del amor y otros demonios por Gabriel García Márquez es mi relato favorito, de todos los que hemos leído en esta clase. Me parece que transmite varios mensajes esenciales y axiomáticas, incluyendo la importancia de reservar juicio y de ser honesto contigo mismo—especialmente con las querencias profundas que podrían hundir a nuestro ser.
En estilo típico de García Márquez, el relato rebosa de lo...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Ramona Tudor rated it 5 of 5 stars

Why 5 stars? and why Marquez? This world consists in too many questions and too many possible and questionable answers.
Truth be told, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has the energy, the vitality and the necessary drop of fiction -magic realism- that we need to feed ourselves with(once in a while). So why bother to explain such a simple choice? I have spend 30 minutes trying to write a serious review. I realized, afterwards, that there is no necessity in doing that.
When talking about literature, one shoul...more Why 5 stars? and why Marquez? This world consists in too many questions and too many possible and questionable answers.
Truth be told, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has the energy, the vitality and the necessary drop of fiction -magic realism- that we need to feed ourselves with(once in a while). So why bother to explain such a simple choice? I have spend 30 minutes trying to write a serious review. I realized, afterwards, that there is no necessity in doing that.
When talking about literature, one should be free to express itself -at least while gathering and bothering online about booklists, boshokclubs and bookreviews.

This is the first novel I've read of Marquez'. I also read some short stories some months ago and I was utterly impressed by the marquezian style. I didn't know how to understand his work, at first: was I supposed to have a mystical view or rather a fictional one? it never came to my mind that he expresses so good the magic realism -but after reading this novel, I quite understood that whatever Marquez did, he did it luxuriously good.

*
I started the book in the morning, while drinking my coffee. ”It's been a while since I've last read a book”, I told to myself. So there I went, opened my ibooks on iPad and started chewing some words. It didn't come to me ”I want to read Marquez”, but I just felt like opening one of his books. And there I was -not able to destroy the spell. This is the best word to explain Marquez' work: spell and under spell.
His style is fantastic.

Sierva Maria is one of the most fascinating characters I have ever met in my entire history of a reader. I believe this is not because of her character, neither because she is, in herself, an intriguing and fascinating personage, but because of Marquez' style of designing his characters, their way of thinking, manner of reacting, so on and so forth. Sierva Maria's story is as sad and tragic as I have expected, but this story wouldn't be in itself as sad as it may supposed now it is, without this splendid style of writing.
I may repeat myself -but there comes this weird and malicious thought: can't you people see how wonderfully, encrypting, beautifully and fascinating is he writing? -of course I cannot escape the aegis of Beauty of Marquez. At least, not today. I am still fascinated. His spell still has its effect (on me).

/remember to come back on this, note in my head/

there are few times in life when a book makes me speechless. it might be that either I am really tired, either this book is one of those.(less)

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Mar 11, 2013 Nora Perlman rated it 4 of 5 stars

I highly recommend Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Of Love and Other Demons." Marquez's novel discusses the inescapable fate of a young 12-year-old girl who is forced to live a life of unjust anguish and persecution. Young Sierva Maria is assumed to have contracted rabies which the Catholic Church contributes to demonic possession. The bishop convinces her father that the only way to save his daughter will be to commit her to a convent and for the demon to be exorcised from her body.
Marquez does a gr...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Virginia Young rated it 4 of 5 stars

Of Love and Other Demons includes important themes of forbidden love, religion, and cultural divisions in a Colombian society. Garcia Marquez shows his talent for experimentation and magic realism in this book. It tells the story of a young girl who is thought to have rabies after being bitten by a dog, and being sent to live in a convent so that an exorcism can be performed to remove the demons within her. I think my favorite part of this book was actually the clash of cultures that the author...more Of Love and Other Demons includes important themes of forbidden love, religion, and cultural divisions in a Colombian society. Garcia Marquez shows his talent for experimentation and magic realism in this book. It tells the story of a young girl who is thought to have rabies after being bitten by a dog, and being sent to live in a convent so that an exorcism can be performed to remove the demons within her. I think my favorite part of this book was actually the clash of cultures that the author displayed throughout the entire novel. Sierva Maria was raised by the housekeeper of the slaves, Dominga de Adviento, and has spent her entire life learning their culture and living with them. What is normal behavior to her is seen as demonic in the convent, showing the clear divide between black and white culture at the time and also displaying that the Christians and the white, more powerful people in the society not only see the black culture as beneath them, but they actually see it as demonic. El marques, Sierva Maria's father, pulls his daughter away from everything she has grown up with and throws her into a convent where everyone sees her as being possessed by the devil. While there, the priest in charge of her exorcism falls in love with her and starts to question is faith and religion at the hands of his love for Sierva Maria. While many of the readers may see their love as a form of pedophilia, for the girl is 12 years old and the priest is 36 years old, I found that I never found myself thinking about that. Somehow, Garcia Marquez crafts this novel in a way that I overlooked this fact and just wanted them to be together - whereas if I had heard that a book was about the love between a 12 year old girl and a 36 year old man, I would have stayed away. Despite that, and the fact that this book is filled with so much pain placed upon all of the characters in their lives, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested. It brings up some very interesting points and I thought the messages it was trying to teach were important to think about and ponder over.(less)

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Jan 28, 2013 Hope rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My Thoughts:

This is another library find. I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while now but every time I went to the library it was checked out. I got lucky this time around. I love anything written by Gabriel García Márquez. I love him for his ability to take a reader onto an adventure into a world that is real but in many ways surreal. He weaves the story of falling empire, family, romance, religion, slavery, superstition, social justice and politics.

Book begins with Preface written by...more My Thoughts:

This is another library find. I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while now but every time I went to the library it was checked out. I got lucky this time around. I love anything written by Gabriel García Márquez. I love him for his ability to take a reader onto an adventure into a world that is real but in many ways surreal. He weaves the story of falling empire, family, romance, religion, slavery, superstition, social justice and politics.

Book begins with Preface written by the author, as a young journalist he reported on a story about young woman (or child’s) skeleton that was discovered in old church’s crypt. Story is about twelve year old Sierva Maria, daughter of aging Marquis in Columbia and Bernarda. It’s not an ideal life, she grew up with slaves after her mother through her out of the house, with no resistance from her father. She gets bitten by a rabies infected dog and everyone fears that she will go mad, from here story develops.

I love the authors ability to bring forth a 200 year corpse and make her so real and alive through his story. It story about love, mental illness mistaken for possession. Exorcism and Catholic church. I loved every moments of this book, I read it in one sitting, mind you it is a short book, hundred and fifty pages. Throughout the whole story author is in possession of his characters and the direction of the story and not once did I feel disappointed. In many ways it is a sad story, a young girl who endured so much and all she ever wanted was love. For a brief moment of her life she does experience love, but it so brief and tragic. You feel every emotion that she felt and what is not written on the page you imagine what she must have felt.

Overall this was excellent read, and I would recommend it to all readers out there. This book has it all, love, mental illness, possession, exorcism, religion and family. Not to mention some great writing and great characters.

I give this book 5/5 STARS – HAPPY READING!!!(less)

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Sep 15, 2012 Daryl Leyesa rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story started with an incidence of rabies and developed into a story of love that is more powerful and unforgiving than rabies itself. Even the atheist in the story professed: “love was an emotion contra natura that condemned two strangers to a base and unhealthy dependence, and the more intense it was, the more ephemeral.”

Ephemeral love budding from promises of the eternal? (Lupeeet!)

“Of Love..” – it was about a long-haired girl who ran into a mad dog – a cupid in disguise; got bitten by a...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Mark Dunn rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 31, 2012 Ivana rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've read this novel almost without pausing. It starts kind of slow but it does have a way of making you feel inside of the story. Once things do start happening, you'll probably find yourself completely immersed in the story. With the lyrical descriptions, the wonderful recreating of times past and a wonderful narrative, it is a really enjoyable read. The prose is very powerful, there is something enchanting about it. The narrative and the style of writing go so well together. There is somethin...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Bookworm rated it 4 of 5 stars

About:
Ninety three days after being bitten by a rabid dog and still not showing any signs of rabies, twelve year old Sierva Maria de Todos los Angeles is put in a convent for observation. Sierva Maria has been put through a series of painful and uncomfortable remedies in order to try and fight the infection that might take her young life.

Her mother and father dislike each other immensely and have allowed the girl to be raised in the slave quarters near their home. This has led Sierva Maria to s...more

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May 18, 2012 Prerna rated it 3 of 5 stars

I thought this was one of the better books by Marquez. I like his work, so no point talking about the obvious- that I like how he talks about the fantastical and the real in a deadpan, straight-faced tone and the setting of his books.
Reading this book I was struck by the thought that almost all of his characters seem slightly crazy to me. Not one of them seems really "sane". But I think he says it right when he says in this book, "Crazy people are not crazy if one accepts their reasoning". Whil...more

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May 11, 2012 Noelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

There is something unapologetically romantic about Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He is the most romantic of the male writers I have ever read, and this story has all the lyricism of a Shakespearean tragedy. Why are we constantly drawn to stories like these? I have yet to understand it. I am no expert, while I am lulled by the story telling, the very human characters, the exotic locale for a displaced gentry that fervently longs for a degree of companionship, intimacy and, yes, salvation, I was constan...more

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Mar 12, 2012 صلاح القرشي rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

في رواية عن الحب وشياطين أخرى ..يعود بنا ماركيز للقرن الثامن عشر ..مفتتحا هذه الرواية بحديث ماركيز نفسه حول خبر صحفي عن تفريغ قبور أحد الأديرة التاريخية

( ابتدأت الخطوة الأولى بتفريغ القبور وتسليم البقايا لمن يطالب بها ودفن الباقي في حفرة مشتركة )

ثم

( وفي الكوة الثالثة للمذبح الأكبر الى جانب المكان الذي يوضع فيه الإنجيل وجدت الخبر الذي أنشده ..تحطمت شاهدة القبر من أول ضربة معول وانبعثت جديلة حية ذات لون نحاسي كثيف, حاول رئيس العمال إخراجها كاملة بمساعدة عماله لكنهم كانوا كلما سحبوا منها جزءً تبد...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Author Groupie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, magical-realism

Searching through my tubs of books, I came across Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Of Love and Other Demons. Remembering that I had purchased this short novel years and years ago after a class introduced me to this remarkable Nobel Prize-winning author via One Hundred Years of Solitude, I knew I had unearthed my next read while feeling a pang of regret at not yet having turned its pages. Translated by Edith Grossman, Of Love and Other Demons in much the same manner as One Hundred Years of Solitude imme...more

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Aug 31, 2011 San Gregorio added it · review of another edition

Shelves: literatura-latinoamericana, literatura-colombiana

Del Amor y Otros Demonios
Gabriel García Márquez

Breve Biografía del Autor:
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez, también conocido por su seudónimo, “Gabo”, nació en Aracataca, Colombia, el 6 de marzo de 1927.Es un periodista, crítico cinematográfico, guionista, cuentista, novelista y escritor, considerado la máxima figura del “realismo mágico”(mezcla de realidad y fantasía). Su obra más famosa, “100 años de soledad”, es también perteneciente a este género. Otras de sus obras más importantes...more Del Amor y Otros Demonios
Gabriel García Márquez

Breve Biografía del Autor:
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez, también conocido por su seudónimo, “Gabo”, nació en Aracataca, Colombia, el 6 de marzo de 1927.Es un periodista, crítico cinematográfico, guionista, cuentista, novelista y escritor, considerado la máxima figura del “realismo mágico”(mezcla de realidad y fantasía). Su obra más famosa, “100 años de soledad”, es también perteneciente a este género. Otras de sus obras más importantes son: “Doce cuentos peregrinos”, “La hojarasca”, “Crónica de una muerte anunciada”, “El general en su laberinto”, “La mala hora” y “El amor en los tiempos del cólera”. En 1982, recibió el Premio Nobel de Literatura por sus novelas e historias cortas, mientras se encontraba exiliado en México.

Sinopsis de la novela:
El relato “Del Amor y Otros Demonios”, de Gabriel García Márquez, cuenta la historia de una niña de 12 años, llamada Sierva María, hija única del Marqués de Casalduero y Bernarda Cabrera, que fue mordida por un perro rabioso en el mercado. Su madre no le tenía afecto, es más, la detestaba; su padre la quería, pero nunca le prestó mucha atención. La niña pasaba sus días en el patio de los esclavos negros de la casa, quienes le enseñaban a bailar, hablar lenguas africanas y otras tradiciones negras. Cuando la niña fue mordida, el padre comenzó a cobrar interés por ella; consultó a un judío portugués llamado Abrenuncio, que decía ser doctor; éste le recomendó un “tratamiento de felicidad”, el cual consistía en dedicarle todo su tiempo a la niña. Pero este tratamiento falló ya que la niña estaba acostumbrada al desprecio por parte de sus padres. Entonces el Marqués decide acudir al Obispo Don Toribio de Cáceres y Virtudes, quien cuenta con la ayuda del Padre Cayetano Delaura. El Obispo le recomienda que la mande al Convento de Santa Clara, donde sería curada. Allí Sierva María comienza a manifestar comportamientos extraños, y las empleadas creen que ella está poseída. Piden ayuda al Padre Cayetano Delaura, a quien se le encomienda la tarea de exorcizar a la niña. Por lo tanto éste comienza a visitar a Sierva María para conocerla mejor, y sin querer, se enamoran, pero lo mantienen en secreto.
Título
“Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles”

Dos frases de la novela que leí
○ Fue el ritual de un condenado a muerte. La llevaron a rastras al abrevadero, la lavaron a baldazos, la despojaron a tirones de sus collares y le pusieron el camisón brutal de los herejes.
○ La cabellera de Sierva María se encrespó con vida propia como las serpientes de la Medusa, y de la boca salió una baba verde y un sartal de improperios en lenguas de idólatras.

Opinión sobre lo que leí
La novela “Del Amor y Otros Demonios” me gustó porque fue interesante, entretenida y original. Me atrapó la manera de describir que posee Gabriel García Márquez. Me pareció interesante el amor que surgió entre Sierva María y el Padre Cayetano Delaura; no pensé que podría darse tal situación. Al comenzar a leer la novela, esperaba que tuviera un final feliz, como los que estoy acostumbrada a leer, pero no fue así. De todas maneras, me gustó mucho.
Le recomendaría esta obra a quienes les interese leer una novela de una de las figuras más importantes e influyentes de la literatura universal como lo es Gabriel García Márquez. Es una novela que atrapa, crea cierta dependencia y dan ganas de seguir leyéndola hasta terminar .Se la recomendaría también a quienes buscan una novela no muy larga y entretenida, en la que los hechos reales se describen de manera exagerada (realismo mágico).(less)

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Aug 18, 2011 Jackson Cage rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found this book in an old villa in the magical city of Positano, Italy. The story of a girl with long golden hair who contracts rabies and who falls in love with a priest caught my attention, particularly after having recently finished another book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which had some similar themes. This book read like wild fire. I finished it in two days. This story recaptured the magical allure of Marquez for me after the disappointing "One Hundred Years of Solitude". The love and...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Fabio Osorio rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Me encanto leer este libro!

En el amor no importa la postura política, tampoco importan las diferencias sociales o la edad o la tradición, pareciera decir García Márquez. Pero no explicita. Simplemente pone en juego elementos contradictorios que se resuelven con la muerte. Describe minuciosamente las diferencias, los choques, las distancias que conviven en una cultura que se muestra homogénea ante los ojos del mundo, pero que está carcomida en sus entrañas más profundas.

La vida de dos pequeños p...more

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About Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. García Márquez, familiarly known as "Gabo" in his native country, is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

He started as a journalist, and has written many acclaimed non-fiction works and short st...more

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“Do not allow me to forget you” — 122 people liked it

“Crazy people are not crazy if one accepts their reasoning.” — 103 people liked it

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