Introduction: The novel the house of spirits is written by Isabel Allende LIona.Allende works sometimes contain “magical realist” tradition.she has been called the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author in 2004.her novels are often based upon her personal experience and pay homage to the lives of women,while weaving together elements of myth and realism.
Review:The story mainly revolves around clara who is a clairvoyant and the youngest in the family of severo and niveadel valle.their family consists of 11 children ,eldest daughter is rosa who is beautiful and nana who looks after them .Esteban trueba a youngman from an old upper class family that lost all of its money,falls in love with Rosa .their family agrees to marriage .but then she dies later.after that trueba goes back to their home in which his sister ferula and his mother Dona ester trueba live.hw promises them that they will never lack anything as long as he lives.he decides to go to their estate (Tresmarias) on her sister’s advice to make it into money making estate.Pedro Segundo Garcia is the who looks after the estate in trueba’s absence.trueba rapes every girl he likes in that place .he rapes a girl named pancha.she becomes pregnant and so he losesinterest in her then leaves her.Esteban becomes involved in politics with other landowners.he even meets a prostitute named Transito soto in Christopher Columbus(brothel) and asks her whether she likes any present ,she says I need 50 pesos ,he gives her the money .mean while he receives a call fromhis sister saying that their mother is about to die.he decides to marry to fulfil his mother’s wish before she dies.he goes to valle’s family again and asks If there are anyone of his age to marry.then they tell him that clara Is of his age.they marry finally.clara sees her destiny before this itself that she is going to marry him.before their marriage itself his mother dies. Firstly a daughter was born for them ,they named her as blanca.when their family goes to tres marias during summer blanca falls in love with pedro tercero gracia.there clara gets again pregnancy ,so to have good treatment to come back to the city during which she goes silent .she gives birth to twins named Jaime and Nicolas.A few days later severo and nivea die in a car accident in which nivea’s head is severed from her body.thaey keep this as secret as she is in pregnancy,however she comes to know this through her dreams.they were anable to find her head but clara along with ferula recovers the head and they hide it in a hatbox.when they tell esteban about it,he moves it to the basement.On the other side pancha dies,leaving behing the son she and Esteban had together,as well as her grandson ,also named Esteban Garcia.
Blanca and pedro tercero love deepens.ferula dies,the family learns her death when ferula’sspirit comes to bid clara farewell on her way out of this world.clara is the only one who realizes what has happened .she was kicked out of the house and so she lived in the poorest parts of the city.Clara washes Ferula’s body herself and has her buried.after that incident earthquake rocks the entire country.every building at tres mariasis decimated,Esteban is crushed under the house.He lives but everybone in his body as broken and he is confined for months to a bed and then to a wheelchair .Nana in the city dies of fright.The children are send back to school in the capital,but after a few months Blanca convinces the nuns at her school that she is coming down with tuberculosis and she returns to Tresmarias.actual reason for blanca’s return is to meet pedro tercero.Count jean de satigny arrives in the neighbourhood.he ttries to convince him to undertake a chinchilla farmhim,while pursuing blanca’s hand in marriage.Blanca refuses him point blank.not long after ,blanca begins to show signs of being pregnant.jean is the only person who can understand.he is the only person besides clara who has been aware of her nightime meetings with pedro tercero.jean doesn’t mind blanca’s having lover ,he still tries to win blanca’s handhe follows blanca one night to her meeting with pedro tercero.he decides to tell this to esteban and knowing this he promises to kill tercero.he tries to find him,but couldn’t find him.then oneday esteban Garcia comes forward and offers to show him(tercero) in return for the reward.Esteban misses killing him and only manages to chop off three of his fingers.when Garcia asks him for his reward esteban slaps him and calls him a traitor.
When esteban comes to know that blanca is pregnant he calls jean and informs him that he must marry blanca now.blanca first refuses to accept but she accepts in the end when esteban tells her that he has killed tercero.they marry.After that clara tells blanca that she is ure that pedro tercero is alive.they move to the north after their marriage.
Esteban gets involved in politics.nicolas learns Flamenco and begins offering classes.his gf Amanda and her 5yr old brother Miguel also become patrt time residents of trueba house.jaime is quite diff from his twin brother.he lives an austere life,devoted to studies.With the help of father jose dulce maria ,pedro heals and moves to the city.he continues his revolutionary activities and maintains his friendship with Jaime.
Nicolas realizes that Amanda is pregnant and they poor orphans.she does not want to marry himand asks him to help her have an abortion.jaime performs abortion.Amanda and Miguel are still living with the trueba’s when blanca’s daughter Alba is born.
Jean brings mummies into the houseone night,she sneaks out when she thinks she hears the haunting and traces thae activity to jean’s photography laboratory.the next day ,blaca manages to get everyone out of the housebefore knowing that the nocturnal noises came came not from mummies but fromjean and the Indians he employs.Blanca does not want her daughter exposed to this sort of thing and so ,9months pregnant she packs a bag and sneaks out to catch a train to the city.blanca gives birth to alba .she tells her that her real father is jean and he died in the desert.Nicolas teches alba alternative religion and medicine.calra teches her to read and commune with spirits.jaime allows her into his private library.she is the only person whom esteban expresses his love to.On 17th birthday of alba clara realizes that she about to die and tries to explain to their family that death is also part of the life and she dies .esteban arranges an elaborate funeral and erects a mausoleum to hold clara,rosa and himself ,so that they all can united in death.
Pedro tercero continues to meet with blanca regularly and often with alba as well.Alba loves him but never realizes that he is her father.pedro tercero continues to ask blanca to come live with him.During 18 yr alba enrols in the university and falls in love with Miguel.miguel is a student and revolutionary.out of love for Miguel,alba becomes involved in revolutionary politics.Esteban Garcia reveals to Miguel that alba is senator trueba’s granddaughter.jaime is the only person alba tells of her relationship with Miguel.he keeps alba’s relationship a secret.
To almost everyone’s surprise,the socialists win the election.the majority of the people are overjoyed.the upheavel in the country and Esteban’s prolonged absence set the stage for the peasants at tresmarias to take over the estate.when esteban finds out,he takes a gun and goes to tres marias himself.the peasants take esteban hostage,and even the national guard is unable to free him.pedro tercero helps alba and blanca to free esteban trueba.
Pedro tercero comes to the house in secret and asks for blanca’s help.she hides him in one of the back rooms of the house,telling no one.she tells Esteban and alba that she has been hiding pedro tercero in the house .esteban himself leads pedro tercero out of his hiding and the two men reconcile.blanca finally decides to live with pedro tercero.the two of them enter the embassy of the Vatican together,and flee to Canada.
The political police have alba undersurveillance.one night ,they break in,ransack the house,and take alba away.Esteban protests,but is anable to stop them.The political police deliver Alba to the colonel who now heads the military dictatorship,Esteban Garcia.she is physically,sexually and emotionally tortured by guards as well as by Esteban Garcia.he and the guards demand that Alba tell them where Miguel is.she steadfastly refuses.she comes to know that he is torturing her not only to find out where Miguel is.but also to avenge himself for injuries that had been inflicted on him from birth.
Meanwhile trueba uses every connection he has to try to locate alba.after a month of fruitless searching ,esteban asks transito to help him locate alba,who is the only person left in his family who he loves.atlast they transito finds alba.
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