The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

By Bright Summaries

Unlock the more straightforward side of The House of the Spirits with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, a sweeping narrative which chronicles the lives of three generations of the Trueba-del Valle family. As the members of this family grow older, fall in love, develop their own political beliefs and come into conflict with each other, their story provides a constant echo of the rise and fall of the ideologies, traditions and systems that shaped Latin America itself. Isabel Allende is a Chilean writer, and is one of the most popular Spanish-language authors in the world. The House of the Spirits was her debut novel, and its popularity with readers catapulted her to widespread fame when it was published in 1982. Allende was awarded the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 2010 in tribute to her long and varied literary career.

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•A complete plot summary
•Character studies
•Key themes and symbols
•Questions for further reflection

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• Language: English
• Publisher: BrightSummaries.com
• Release date: May 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9782808001748

Book preview

ISABEL ALLENDE

CHILEAN-AMERICAN WRITER

Born in Lima (Peru) in 1942.

Notable honours:

Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Notable works:

Of Love and Shadows (1984), novel

Paula (1994), memoir

City of the Beasts (2002), novel

Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (2003), novel

Forest of the Pygmies (2004), novel

Isabel Allende was born in Lima in 1942 while her father, Tomás Allende Pesse, was working at the Chilean embassy in Peru, and the future writer spent the first few years of her life there. However, when her parents separated in 1946, her mother took her and her two younger brothers back to Chile with her. Allende lived there until 1953, and then spent some time living in Bolivia and in Lebanon before returning to Chile in 1959, after which she married her first husband Miguel Frías and had two children with him.

Allende spent several years working as a journalist for a variety of newspapers and magazines, both in Chile and abroad, and this experience is reflected in the investigative rigour of several of her novels, including The House of the Spirits (1982). She also tried her hand at writing children’s fiction and plays during this time. However, the military coup in September 1973, during which the president Salvador Allende (1908-1973) was overthrown and assassinated, left Allende and her family with no choice but to flee the country in 1975 because of their political and familial ties to the previous government (Salvador Allende was her father’s first cousin). She lived in Venezuela for the next 13 years, and wrote her first novel during her time there. Today, she is the most commercially successful living Spanish-language author in the world, as her books have sold more than 65 million copies and have been translated into over 30 languages.

The theme of exile subtly permeates The House of the Spirits, although it is rarely mentioned outright. The novel’s overall tone is coloured by nostalgia, and Allende’s physical distance from Chile seems to enable her to reconstruct the history of the country she was forced to flee with exceptional clarity. The novel, which is dedicated to Allende’s daughter, is at