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The House of the Spirits (Tripartite #3)

by Isabel Allende (Goodreads Author)

4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 · rating details · 73,853 ratings · 2,827 reviews

Here, in an astonishing debut by a gifted storyteller, is the magnificent saga of proud and passionate men and women and the turbulent times through which they suffer and triumph. They are the Truebas. And theirs is a world you will not want to leave, and one you will not forget.

Esteban -- The patriarch, a volatile and proud man whose lust for land is legendary and who is...more

Paperback, 433 pages

Published July 1st 1986 by Bantam (first published 1982)

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Apr 01, 2013 Aubrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-06-12, translated, on-hand, spanish, reality-check, 4-star, reviewed

4.5/5

Esteban, Trueba,
how does your childhood grow?
With fear and guilt and such hard work
and a love that leaves you low.
In thoughts of grief and thoughts of rage,
and a slump of of broken land,
you will rape your heart out, Esteban,
set life to your demand.

Clara, Clara, clairvoyant,
how does your marriage keep?
With magic silent and so near,
to where your children sleep.
When tragedy has struck your home,
and the bull is in the shop,
reality will find you there,
your disengagement stop.

Humans, humans, high...more

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Aug 21, 2012 stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: high-school-reading, contemporaryfiction

haha, so my sophomore honors english teacher decided he wanted to read a book with us for the first time, so he asked our department head to recommend a book. we all died, because mr. wells could not deal with talking about sex, and mr. hackling knew this, and he assigned this book. i mean, a couple of pages in, there's all this graphic rape in the fields going on! and then there's the creepy ass count . . .

i really loved the book though. it's layered, it's complex, it's beautiful. the imagery...more

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Jul 09, 2008 Claudia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gabriel Garcia Marquez comparisons aside, it's hard to review this book without references to the magical realism and the narrative styles of Latin America.

I truly believe that anyone not familiar with the above mentioned, would likely be a bit thrown, even put off by these influences. Still, this is a brilliantly written story, epic in its truest sense. Covering four generations of women (with a man as the common thread between them), it races through the simplicity of the old world into the c...more Gabriel Garcia Marquez comparisons aside, it's hard to review this book without references to the magical realism and the narrative styles of Latin America.

I truly believe that anyone not familiar with the above mentioned, would likely be a bit thrown, even put off by these influences. Still, this is a brilliantly written story, epic in its truest sense. Covering four generations of women (with a man as the common thread between them), it races through the simplicity of the old world into the complexity of an increasingly global existance and the insistance that this country enter into the morphing global economy and political stage.

The true classics know how to do one particular thing very well: They are able to capture the reader with the emotive ties to the characters in a microcosm while placing them in a grander milestone setting, historically. Many stories have attempted this balance and fall short in one aspect or another. Either the personal attachment is emphasized at the expense of the historical detail, or the historical events are diluted to platform the characters. In this case, both are developed successfully because we are introduced and weaned on to the family first and then become involved in their plight as gradually as they do. Political upheaval grew into their lives the way it grew into the narration.

It's also important to mention that by definition, this won't be a political struggle that most of the captalist population will be familiar with. Some background knowledge of the history of Chile does come in handy, especially when references are thrown in enigmatically. "The Poet" is mentioned sporadically at first, then his existance becomes poignant for a moment. The reference to Neruda, his real life exile, his political position... all of these are only subtly mentioned throughout the plot, and he is never referred to by name. So it's interesting that Allende refers to censorship by censoring herself. Clearly a conscious decision on her part, to seperate this historical novel from being a direct documentation of the history of Chile. The same holds true for the events leading up to and after the military coup and the Pinochet situation.

This story shows us what it "might" have looked like behind the scenes. What the papers were not reporting. What the news programing was cleaning up on orders of the heads of state.

This is what this story is about. In Latin America, these kinds of events are innumerable. They are part of the history, but they can not be told for the very censorship that this story speaks of. So they are told in novels and are thinly veiled as magical and exaggerated so as to hide behind such protection. But they are real, and to this day, there is a weekly procession in one of the plazas in Santiago, Chile, of people who "lost" family members to the military government. 40 years later, there are still hundreds who have not been accounted for.

With this story, Allende hooks us, reels us in, and binds us to these characters. They are funny, ecentric, tempermental, ideal, strong, weak and so much more. Their dimensionality begs us to invest in them, emotionally, so that when their lives become shaken by their setting, we are as invested in how they will deal with the challenge.

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May 27, 2010 Mashael Alamri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-in-2010, latin-literature

بكرسيّ طائر واتصالات في عالم الأرواح بقية كلارا الحبيبة بالقرب من ترويبا الشيخ الذي تحول تاجه للبياض و قامته للهرم والحزن متكور داخله بعد فقد من أحبها بفعل صفعة , الحنين المنتقل بالأوراق بين الزوجين و الحب الذي يلقي بالفتيات في مواجهة المصائب بقلب قوي و عاطفة جارفة تتبادل القبل على خلفية خوف وفي وسط الثورة , الحياة بجانب من نحب تستحق المجازفة بما تبقى من أعمارنا . من قال أن الحب يضيع وأن هناك شيء يسمى : " فات الأوان" في قاموس العشاق؟ . في الجزء الثالث بعد: "ابنة الحظ"و"صورة عتيقة" تكتب بها إزا...more

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Sep 22, 2012 ميّ أحمد rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: روايات

من عشق مئة عام من العزلة ربما سيستاء من هذه الرواية لليندي
وهل يمكن أن نحب الروايتين معا !
عني لم استطع حقيقة فالأصل يبقى دائما له ذلك البريق الذي حمل الدهشة تلو الأخرى
الليندي لم تتأثر فقط ولكن الرواية نسخة مقلدة لرواية العظيم ماركيز العمل الذي فاز على إثره بنوبل وترجم إلى لغات عديدة وتوج به بطلا روائيا
لو ذهبت إلى عزلة ماركيز لوجدت قرية ماكوندو الخيالية بينما في أرواح الليندي تحولت للماريات الثلاث .. ماركيز كتب على مدار ستة أجيال أو ثمانية لا أتذكر بينما كتبت الليندي على مدار أربعة أجيال أغلب ش...more
من عشق مئة عام من العزلة ربما سيستاء من هذه الرواية لليندي
وهل يمكن أن نحب الروايتين معا !
عني لم استطع حقيقة فالأصل يبقى دائما له ذلك البريق الذي حمل الدهشة تلو الأخرى
الليندي لم تتأثر فقط ولكن الرواية نسخة مقلدة لرواية العظيم ماركيز العمل الذي فاز على إثره بنوبل وترجم إلى لغات عديدة وتوج به بطلا روائيا
لو ذهبت إلى عزلة ماركيز لوجدت قرية ماكوندو الخيالية بينما في أرواح الليندي تحولت للماريات الثلاث .. ماركيز كتب على مدار ستة أجيال أو ثمانية لا أتذكر بينما كتبت الليندي على مدار أربعة أجيال أغلب شخصيات ماركيز كانت أرواحا تهيم في بيت الليندي الواقعية السحرية التي بهرنا بها في العزلة تجسدت في شخصية كلارا وشعوذاتها
العزلة التي كانت محور الرواية هي نفسها العزلة التي كانت تحيط باستبيان بطل الليندي
الحقيقة كان الأمر أشبه بالصدمة لي على الرغم من جمال السرد وأسلوب الليندي الفاره لكني كنتُ أشعر كأن الليندي قد أنجبت مسخا
ربما كان أفضل ماكتبت عنه هو فترة الثورة على الماركسية في عهدإلبا وإعدام الرئيس الليندي الذي يعتبر هو أول رئيس منتخب والذي عاصرته الكاتبة هذه الفترة من الإضطرابات والفوضى ومانتج عنها هناك فقط شعرت أن الليندي ألقت بثوب ماركيز وانطلقت بإتجاه آخر لكن متأخر جدا
لم يحدث وأن قرأت لليندي رواية أصابني فيها الملل كما حدث لي هنا كنتُ أدفع نفسي دفعالأنها الليندي و
لكن من قال أن كل أديب نال حظا هائلا من الشهرة يجب أن تكون أعماله كلها رائعة !

ومع ذلك لا أنكر أنني قرأت الفصول الأخيرة باستمتاع منذ اللحظة التي قام فيها الإنقلاب على الماركسيين خطف إلبا وسجنها ما تفعله الإنقلابات كيف يتكرر في كل زمان ومكان لأنصار السلطة من إعدامات وخلافه خايمي وطريقة الموت البشعة ، زيارة كلارا لألبا في زنزانة وجار الكلب ونهاية استبيان أخيرا
بينما كنت قبل ذلك أتململ من ذكر كلارا الشخصية الروحانية التي ألبستها الليندي لباس الملائكية بشتى الطرق تقليدا لشخصية من شخصيات عزلة ماركيز
لكن حقيقة لم تعطني ذلك الشعور البرىء والبهي الذي منحني أياه

من الآخر كان من الشقاء أن أقرأ رواية عدد صفحاتها 460 ص ولا استمتع إلا بالستين صفحة الأخيرة !

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Dec 28, 2009 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: foreign-language

2.5 stars, actually. (Still waiting for Goodreads to give me that half-star option.) Let's be honest, Isabel Allende is chick lit that you're not embarrassed to read on the Metro. It's got just enough faux-Garcia-Marquez, magical-realism-lite charm to fool people into thinking it's moderately intellectual. I don't have a big problem with that (as long as people realize what's going on) because Allende is a fine storyteller. This novel, her first and most famous, is a fairly traditional family sa...more 2.5 stars, actually. (Still waiting for Goodreads to give me that half-star option.) Let's be honest, Isabel Allende is chick lit that you're not embarrassed to read on the Metro. It's got just enough faux-Garcia-Marquez, magical-realism-lite charm to fool people into thinking it's moderately intellectual. I don't have a big problem with that (as long as people realize what's going on) because Allende is a fine storyteller. This novel, her first and most famous, is a fairly traditional family saga following three generations of an upper-class Chilean family from the early 20th century to the Pinochet era. The writing is lovely throughout, with vivid descriptions particularly of places and characters' physical surroundings.

The book's weak spot, however, is characterization. For a genre that depends so much on having the reader care deeply about the characters, Allende does a pretty poor job accomplishing that. I think her main problem is that she hadn't quite yet mastered the "show, don't tell" rule of writing. Instead of revealing Esteban Trueba's stubbornness and pride through his actions, she'd just tell us, "Esteban Trueba was stubborn and proud." It was mostly unconvincing and made many of the characters seem flat and two-dimensional, and you never really got that important sense of who they were as people.

Other problems: Allende has always been an author who writes about strong women, but the women in this book, not so much. I mean, when one male character beats his wife until her teeth fall out, her response (depicted as brave by the narrator) is to not talk to him for a couple years. Silence is the author's idea of female empowerment and resistance - huh? Anyway, on top of that, the only sections of first-person narration in the novel are from the point of view of the patriarch. So, yeah, problematic on that level. And just a nitpick, but she way overuses foreshadowing. Dramatically hinting at what's going to happen a few chapters on is effective once or twice, but not over and over.

Well, I realize it sounds like I hated the book, but as a story it was pretty enjoyable. At least the first half. The second half, which tracks Chilean politics and real-life events through Salvador Allende's election and Pinochet's military coup, is uninteresting and unsurprising to anyone who knows anything about 20th century Chilean history. But the first half, which is more of a romantic love story, is pretty good. I'm keeping this at 3 stars for the soft spot I have for Allende's later books, which tell stories that are (I think) more unique and compelling.

P.S. Sorry for the long review, but I spent a full month reading this book in Spanish so I feel like I've got to get my money's worth, so to speak.(less)

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Mar 27, 2009 Lamski Kikita rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Allende's first and best work of art. The story of three generations of Trueba women that tells the history of a nation.

During the first 10 pages I was thinking to myself that there is way too much similarity on so many levels to One Hundred Years of Solitude, but why not, since it's the bible of Latin American magical realism?

In addition to Clara, the second Del Valle daughter who forsaw the future, communicated with spirits, and moved objects without touching them, and Blanca, her daughter w...more Allende's first and best work of art. The story of three generations of Trueba women that tells the history of a nation.

During the first 10 pages I was thinking to myself that there is way too much similarity on so many levels to One Hundred Years of Solitude, but why not, since it's the bible of Latin American magical realism?

In addition to Clara, the second Del Valle daughter who forsaw the future, communicated with spirits, and moved objects without touching them, and Blanca, her daughter who was castaway because of her forbidden love story with a communist peasant, and Alba, Blanca's daughter who had the green hair of her great aunt Rosa, the story of the book also revolves around Senator Esteban Trueba, the hardline right-wing, anti-communist, angry yet heartbroken oligarch; the Latin Patriarch of the Trueba family, and the man who built the big house on the corner. Allende almost seems rather sympathetic to the man who supressed his workers, raped all the peasant girls he could get his hands on, denied his illigitimate children, knocked the teeth out of his wife's mouth, beat his daughter and alienated her, almost killing her lover and forcing her to marry a French count with strange sexual fetishes, and contibuted greatly to the fall of a democratic government. What's the reason for this sympathetic attitude? maybe because it's Isabelle's own grandfather? Probably.

What I loved most about The House of the Spirits is that it bore witness to the most important part of Chilean history: the Pinochet era. The narration of events that lead to the rising popularity of leftist parties that lead to the election of "the President" who is Salvador Allende- related to the author- the role the oligarchy played in giving the military a new-found power which resulted in the assasination of Allende, the fall of democracy in a country that was unfamiliar to coups and non-democratic processes, and the instillation of a tyrannical right-wing dictatorship that killed off its political enemies, tortured political prisoners, assasinated whoever was suspect of Marxism, and ruined the history of a nation, headed by Pinochet.

The best way to follow this book is by reading her memoires: My Invented Country, and getting a Pablo Neruda - referred to as The Poet in the book- poetry collection.(less)

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Dec 14, 2008 Nicole rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a really hard time getting into magic realism, I'm more of a realism-realism kind of gal myself, so I was surprised when I started semi getting into this. Although, characteristically, I got more into the less magic/more realistic parts of the novel. I think this book wants to be some type of a feminist novel, but it falls short in so many ways. Now, I am not the type of feminist who goes out looking for feminist novels (big Roth fan here, actually) but I do have a problem with anything t...more I have a really hard time getting into magic realism, I'm more of a realism-realism kind of gal myself, so I was surprised when I started semi getting into this. Although, characteristically, I got more into the less magic/more realistic parts of the novel. I think this book wants to be some type of a feminist novel, but it falls short in so many ways. Now, I am not the type of feminist who goes out looking for feminist novels (big Roth fan here, actually) but I do have a problem with anything that pretends to be something that it's not.
The novel takes place over the span of three generations of women,but the majority of it is narrated from a man's perspective. And not just any man: a really scuzzy, evil asshole named Esteban who violently rapes women without remorse. Did I just say women? I meant girls. Like, early teens.
While the novel wants us to think of the three main women in the novel (Clara, Blanca, and Alba) as strong, Clara the Clairvoyant still chooses to marry Esteban. The novel doesn't mention the conflict of interest this might arouse. Nothing. And while we are supposed to think of her as wise and strong (she is explicitly referred to as such) she just turns her head the other way and even has children with him. When Esteban beats her until her teeth fall out, her assertion of power is to stop talking. The fact that a woman's silence in the face of abuse was presented as an assertive act kind of disgusted me.
Additionally, it seemed like a lot of the scenes in the novel were super grotesque just for the sake of being extreme. There is a part where one of the main characters, Alba, is being tortured (by men, of course) and as he shoves her face into a "bucket of human excrement" she has an epiphany. Who the hell has an epiphany when her face is buried in human shit? My friend Bruce said it best when he said "she ought to have been more concerned with holding her breath." It just seemed disingenuous.
And, not that I'm one to talk--hey, I wrote this review in 3 minutes--but her sentences had way too many words in them. It was like walking hip deep through snow, line by line. Would I recommend it? I won't say I wouldn't recommend it. I mean, it got this reaction from me, so it's worth something. (less)

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Feb 05, 2008 Garrett rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

Recommended to Garrett by: Cassie

Wow, what a remarkable novel. All over the book's jacket and in online reviews you'll find comparisons to Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude--rightfully so, I think. Both novels span decades and generations of families and are written in the magical realism style.
I can't say that I loved 100 Years of Solitude, but The House of the Spirits is certainly the best book I've read this year, my favorite book I've read this year.
I loved each character, particularly the women whose lives are the subject of...more

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Mar 12, 2009 Chandra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, isabel-allende, historical-fiction

I remember starting this once and becoming utterly disgusted with something in the first chapter and I put it away for many years. It just wasn't the right time. This is why I firmly believe that instead of slogging through a book you aren't enjoying you should put it down. Maybe you will return to it one day and discover something, maybe not, but in any event it's better than torturing yourself.

Later, I got hooked on Allende through her more recent novels and eventually returned to this, her ve...more

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Nov 09, 2009 Jana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: south

Trueba family is impressive. I enjoyed this book so much. It’s huge, eccentric, emotional, spiritual and historical. It’s magnificent. Characters are deep, mystical, love and hate for each other is binding them all.

4 generations of strong women lived in this turbulent South American country - Chile, within memories and spirits, hard and painful life and difficult men, with Esteban Trueba as the constant leader of the pack. The story itself is so deep, as each one of them has a different aura an...more

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Jun 26, 2007 Danika rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: ladies, South America, Spirits

Allende is someone usually found in the hands of women. I think she can be for everyone. The mixture of country, unrest, family, culture and the occult are perfect. I think the fact that Isabelle Allende is the daughter of Salvador Allende Gossens only adds to the richness of her history and in turn her writing.
Side note: Salvador Allende Gossens was the president of Chili from 1970 to 9/11 1973 when he was assassinated in a coup d'état. Parties involved with the overthrow: Augusto José Ramón P...more

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May 16, 2008 Cenoura do Lado rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pt, all

Li este livro em adolescente e é daqueles que deixam resíduos na memória. Ou seja, não nos lembramos da história completa mas lembramo-nos que deixou muito boa impressão.
:)

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Jan 07, 2012 Hend rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: isabel-allende, latin-american-literature, novels

one of the best I have read to Isabel Allende....
i like the spiritual sides in Clara character.....
beauty and sensitivity of Rosa...
and Jaime loneliness......

1 like · like · see review

Apr 01, 2013 Ensiform rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: spanish, fiction

Translated by Magda Bogin. Four generations of an aristocratic and extremely eccentric Chilean family, tied together by the patriarch, Esteban Truebe, a hardworking conservative who marries Clara and becomes a wealthy man and a senator. His wife, a mystical clairvoyant with a loving heart, passes her peculiarities to her descendants, much to Trueba’s rage and dismay. Even as he rails again the communists and what he sees as the ridiculous behavior of his sons (one a dreamer and mystic, the other...more

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May 10, 2008 Nian rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

I really wish I could say this is an amazing book, worthy of so much thoughtful praises, etc., but that would just be a lie. Given how much I enjoy good writing—and this book definitely has it all, like a beautifully crafted essay that speaks with prominent characters and conflicts between generations of families—it’s kind of weird for me to say this book is just okay. I mean, the only thing I like from this entire book is the language: the metaphors, descriptions, the lines that sound so poetic...more I really wish I could say this is an amazing book, worthy of so much thoughtful praises, etc., but that would just be a lie. Given how much I enjoy good writing—and this book definitely has it all, like a beautifully crafted essay that speaks with prominent characters and conflicts between generations of families—it’s kind of weird for me to say this book is just okay. I mean, the only thing I like from this entire book is the language: the metaphors, descriptions, the lines that sound so poetic and true, and the impressive vocabulary. Everything else? Not so much.

Storyline. Absolutely hate how the story shifts like a timeline of generations. It makes sense that it would cover the entire family from grandfather to granddaughter since it’s a family story, but I hate how little time we get to spend with each character before s/he is whisked off to some other place, and only to return whenever the author feels like it. (That how it looks like to me.) Each chapter is almost devoted to just one or two characters, and I find it really tiring, especially when it’s all about relationships and love that I haven’t really figured out why it exists. It’s written at a speed that makes the character’s love story seem kind of random.

It’s like what I say about the protagonist falling in love with her best friend: when readers start the story, they’re just given the fact that they’ve been through a lot and have been best friends forever, so of course they fall in love. But readers don’t get to see that process, and it’s frustrating to see the point they’re making when the viewers are just like, “Yeah, okay, if you say so.” So the protagonists don’t fall in love with their best friends in this book, but they might as well have. Take Pedro Tercero and Blanca, for instance. Love at first sight. Whoop-de-do. First of all, clichéd. Second of all, no development. Love at first sight is pretty explanatory itself, but how the heck did they grow to love each other so much? One minute, they’re children, the next paragraph; they’re teens trying to express themselves. I hate that we just have to take the basic “Oh, they fell in love the first time they curled up against each other” from the author without really questioning how it happened or why it’s developed into some life-and-death scenario later. I can’t handle reading a relationship that doesn’t express itself in a deeper stand and instead, just tells you, yes, they love each other, yes, they are willing to do for each other, yes, they are having wild and passionate sex. So what if they do all of that? It’s the chemistry and direct message that I will interpret that matters.

Of course, if it was just one couple, I could handle. But the sad thing is that the same goes for Clara and Esteban. Maybe it’s the time period, but the author likes to play with the love at first sight story. That’s how Esteban fell for Clara. And Clara was only in it because of her vision, which makes me more frustrated. If you can see the future, why not change it? For a character that seems pretty strong—yet identified as fragile and beautiful, of all the freaking adjectives to describe women!—she lacks what I hope for in a protagonist. Isabel Allende tries to make her manner seem so unorganized and magical realism that she comes off rather cold and unconvincing. And the fact that she hardly talks, not just her character and her mute phases but the dialogue in the book itself (really, the only one who actually says things throughout the book in conversation form would be Esteban and Transito. I felt they talked more than husband and wife. Ironic much?). Seeing as how they’ve spent years and years together, you’d think I, as a reader, could see something present in their relationship, some sort of depth or attraction, but nope, nothing. I mean, I saw a spark in his relationship with a prostitute rather than Clara, which is just wrong. And, the only one who’s real in here is Esteban, but too bad I find him and his actions revolting. If I were to rate him on a personality scale, it’d be negative, negative 1. In this case, two negatives don’t make a positive, people.

Still continuing with the storyline, I find the political stuff just plain boring. I hate how we’re required to read books that not only talk about religion (like Christianity, which is really getting boring by now. How many more discussion topics about this can I handle before I start to scream?) but also politics. I don’t mind if the authors throw it in here and there, but to put all her characters involved with government conflict? It makes the story so predictable (because it is. You don’t politics never end well) and you know we will all spend a day or two talking about the different sides they’re taking and what a big theme it is. I’m just like, yeah, okay, whatever. I don’t want to end up having to look up the political references that the book mentioned to understand it all, and I don’t want a book that puts so much pressure on generations of families just because they don’t agree with each other. It’s bad enough that people are so passionate about that stuff, when others would very much like to just leave it at whatever’s best for the country, and still find something annoying in a work of fiction. With this topic, it threatens the characters and changes their personalities. Instead of being natural people, they get portrayed as good citizens who want to fight for what they believe in. We all know most people wouldn’t do that. Take the Holocaust, for instance. How much people stood up for Jews then? If I’m reading about a character that has journeyed into this political standing/situation, then I have nothing to complain about. But nope, not the case.

It’s also not about the storyline, but how messed up the characters and the people are. It drives me crazy how the author, out of the blue, tells you what can be expected somewhere down the road. I want to be amazed, shocked, and not told what’s going to happen. (One example would be when Amanda’s picking up Miguel from school and says something about dying for him. Then, the author jumps in with, little did she know that she would have to one day. Random!) And it also makes me nuts whenever characters appear and disappear. Like Transito. She appears early on in the book and vanishes until Esteban’s lust kicks in. And finally, she helps him. Or the Moira Sisters—I can’t even remember the significance they had, just that they were like Clara the Clairvoyant. Oh, just the tiniest thing can frustrate me about this book. I haven’t found one single character that I like. They’re all pigs/rapists, or poor fragile women who can’t stand up for themselves, with the exception of Alba. She realizes in the end that she can’t give up, but the whole pregnancy and don’t know who the father is makes me grimace.

I hate how every generation is about sadness, and how everything bad that can happen, happens to the Trueba/Del Valle family. But that’s story-telling for you, just not realistic.

On a final note, even though it couldn’t have been more than a few weeks, it seemed like I’d been reading this book for months, and those months just dragged on and on, especially since I had the old issue of the book where the pages were yellow and smelled like moth balls and some other unidentifiable thing.

The rating: I would have given it 1 star, but the writing was good, so I decided to be nice. (less)

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Dec 06, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-and-still-own, defenestrated

Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits (Knopf, 1985)

The House of the Spirits has set a new record at Goat Central. I have been trying to read this book for three years. Three solid years (well, just shy. Another two weeks and I would have made the anniversary). Why did I keep trying? Because when I'm actually reading it, it's not half bad. But every time I put it down, there is nothing, not a single thing, about it that makes me want to pick it up again. So I'll end up going six to eight month...more

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Aug 14, 2007 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: HOA takers, Spanish takers, women, men, everyone

Shelves: favorites

Ingeniously intertwined story, epic in all respects, covering three plus generations, filled to the brim with rich characters, immense heart, and fantastic imagination. Perfectly blends latin melodrama romance with matriarchal power, the corruption of power and the male species, the suppression of women, the power of love, the power of an opinion, politics, history, social commentary, dictatorship, the effects of time, the power of family, and the almost supernatural feeling that can exist betwe...more

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Jan 22, 2009 Olga rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book gave me insomnia when I was reading it, I was so unsettled and fascinated by it. The setting is beautiful and dramatic and the atmosphere is magical. The politics are horrible, typical Latin American stuff, and Allende should know, as a close relative of the murdered socialist Chilean president, Salvador Allende.
It's an incredible family saga, a powerful history of characters plagued by their own, I guess, characters. You hate some and you admire some, still, they are all interesting...more

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May 16, 2012 Arleen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Compared to other books I've read from Allende, this one seems different and very reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "100 years of solitude" because of the intense magical realism that permeates the book.
Even though I liked the book, it didn't impress me as much as 100 years did, but come on, it's GGM, no one compares. Aside from that, I love Allende very much, and her narrative is always captivating. Clara is an amazing character, very peculiar and improbable.
The book gets good somewhere...more

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Aug 05, 2007 Naeem rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-books-of-a-lifetime, political-economy-novels

With Marquez, the book is nothing short of an effort to redefine the relationship between time, space, and consciousness. Many find this a kind of glorified soap-opera. This is a misreading. Allende is trying to provide a third world redefinition of the relationship between freedom and determinacy, between history and consciousness, between fact, fiction, and the truth, between past, future and the now.

By all means enjoy the story -- and then let it seep into your theoretical life.

As a politica...more

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May 24, 2007 Gwen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: ib11

I really enjoyed this book. A lot of people compare it to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, and while I see the similarities, I think this book has its own distinct story. Magical realism is a style used by many Latin American writers (or so I've been told), so I can't believe that the two books are the same based on that similarity alone. Additionally, the development of characters and the use of first person narration by Allende in parts of the book gives it more depth of...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

really beautiful magic realism about facism, socialism and relatioinships between generations of women... absorbing and uses form to talk about women and other kinds of knowledge.... and politics

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Nov 20, 2008 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!!!

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Jun 21, 2008 Lynn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A weighty 'tome' indeed, and I was not always convinced by the translation, which had me re-reading sentences and phrases. The abundance of detail and lists is somewhat overwhelming, and I never really got a handle on the personalities of the first 3 women in the saga, though Alba, the final 'heroine' seems more real. Maybe that's the point, though, and I very much liked the sentiments expressed in the epilogue, to the effect that revenge is futile, and that it is essential to break that cruel,...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Rosa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tener un libro de este calibre entre las manos y disponer del tiempo necesario para devorarlo, en poco tiempo, casi de un tir��n, rodeado de un entorno que de tan perfecto parezca mentira, es de las mejores cosas que me pod��an pasar ��ltimamente.

He aprovechado un mini-viaje a Oporto para leer La casa de los esp��ritus, en la terraza llena de cesped y hamacas con vistas a la catedral y a multitud de tejados desvencijados de colores de un bonito albergue portugu��s. Aunque con esa infraestructur

...more Tener un libro de este calibre entre las manos y disponer del tiempo necesario para devorarlo, en poco tiempo, casi de un tir��n, rodeado de un entorno que de tan perfecto parezca mentira, es de las mejores cosas que me pod��an pasar ��ltimamente.

��ste es uno de esos casos en los que sabes que un libro es bueno, que lo has visto en la estanter��a de casa y que deber��as leerlo pero por alguna raz��n u otra no lo haces y va pasando el tiempo, sin que puedas imaginarte lo que te est��s perdiendo. Cuando por fin te da por ah�� y lo empiezas, te preguntas irremediablemente por qu�� no lo has le��do antes y te maravillas de que exista gente capaz de escribir como Isabel Allende lo hace.

La casa de los esp��ritus cuenta la historia de la familia Trueba a trav��s de 4 generaciones distintas de la misma. El tiempo transcurre ��gil y veloz por las p��ginas de la novela, tan llena de detalles descriptivos que te parece estar all�� vi��ndolo todo con tus propios ojos, dibujando de forma tan precisa las personalidades de los personajes que te parece conocerlos de verdad. Es una aut��ntica obra maestra, llena de drama, de pasi��n, de dolor, de amor, de violencia y guerra pero sobre todo de una calidad narrativa que asusta.

Lo termin�� ayer y me estoy planteando volver a empezarlo hoy mismo porque desde que le�� la ��ltima frase del ep��logo no me puedo sacar el librito de la cabeza. Lo ��nico malo es que ahora casi cualquier libro que lea, por muy genial que sea, saldr�� perdiendo en comparaci��n con ��ste.

Mi consejo, por supuesto, es que lo le��is ya.

(less)

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Sep 27, 2010 Teresa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book, Allende� s first novel, follows the fictional Trueba family through four generations. Astute readers who know something of Chilean history will no doubt recognize that the family history echoes the 20th-century history of Chile, which Allende� s own family was part of. Her father� s cousin was Salvador Allende, the president of Chile who was overthrown by a coup d�

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Jan 15, 2009 Sunny added it · review of another edition

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
I really enjoyed this book. I read it shortly after writing a paper relating to the Pinochet dictatorship, and I have always had a special interest in Chile, so that probably influenced my opinion. Nonetheless, I believe I would have liked it anyway-- it was a creative and interesting novel. Because of the limited availablity in my local libary, the particular book I read was a large print edition, but I don't believe there were any changed to the text....more

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Mar 25, 2013 Johan Garcia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende is a powerful read. From the beginning to the end, we are taken to and fro the capital in Chile to a remote village known as Las Tres Marías as we see an entire family develop, grow, and shrink due to political turmoil and family strife. We see the unexpected as the attention is shifted from Clara, the young and semi-supernatural young lady to Esteban Trueba, who slowly becomes an unwavering and unforgiving diplomat of his country. We are introduced one...more

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

La casa de los espíritus por Isabel Allende es una novela que enlace y une a los trozos históricos de las familias del Valle, Trueba y García. Este argumento central del cuento está enriquecido por varios elementos literarios y fantásticos, incluyendo el simbolismo, el leitmotivo de la escritura para presentar el cuento, e hilos de realismo mágico que encajan a una gran parte de la cultura latinoamericana.
Esta novela ofreció describir a las varias capas de la sociedad latinoamericana, así exper...more

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About Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende Llona is a Chilean-American novelist. Allende, who writes in the "magic realism" tradition, is considered one of the first successful women novelists in Latin America. She has written novels based in part on her own experiences, often focusing on the experiences of women, weaving myth and realism together. She has lectured and done extensive book tours and has taught literature at s...more

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“This is to assuage our conscience, darling" she would explain to Blanca. "But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need chartiy; they need justice.” — 58 people liked it

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