The Heart Possessed

by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño

Margarita Baldini, a young woman living in the San Francisco of the 1920's, falls in love with, and bears the child of, a married man. When her lover and the son he fathered are killed in an automobile accident, Margarita falls into a trance, believing herself to be Margaret of Cortona, a 13th century saint.

335 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Elizabeth Borton de Treviño was the highly acclaimed author of many books for young people. Born in California, it was her move to Mexico in the 1930s that inspired many of her books, including El Güero: A True Adventure Story and Leona: A Love Story. She won the Newbery Medal in 1966 for I, Juan de Pareja.

Elizabeth was born in Bakersfield, California, the daughter of attorney Fred Ellsworth Borton and Carrie Louise Christensen. She attended Stanford University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1925 with a bachelor's degree in Latin American history. After finishing college, she moved to Massachusetts to study violin at the Boston Conservatory, and then worked as a reporter. On her marriage to Luis Treviño Arreola y Gómez Sanchez de la Barquera (b. August 5, 1902), she moved to his hometown of Monterrey, Mexico. They had two sons, Luis Fredrico Treviño-Borton and Enrique Ricardo Treviño-Borton.

Among her other books are: Nacar the White Deer, The Greek of Toledo, Casilda of the Rising Moon, Beyond the Gates of Hercules, and The Fourth Gift. In later life, she wrote several memoirs of her life as an American who had married into a traditional Mexican family: the best-seller My Heart Lies South and its sequels, Where the Heart Is, and The Hearthstone of My Heart.

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Reviews

[Lana Del Slay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Generic-ish gothic romance, but I was in the mood for that today. It's casually misogynist, but I have to excuse her because the novel is set in the same era in which she came of age. Revisionist history isn't. Besides, she treats her Asian-American characters brilliantly. Well, for the era.