Reading Order
The House of the SpiritsAllende House of the Spirits Reading Order
Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits (1982) is the foundational Latin American family saga novel and the work that established magical realism as a viable form for women's experience. The novel traces four generations of the Trueba family — from the patriarch Esteban Trueba's rise and the clairvoyant Clara's marriage to him, through their daughter Blanca and her love affair with Pedro Tercero, to the granddaughter Alba's involvement in resistance to the Chilean military coup of 1973. Allende wrote the novel as a letter to her dying grandfather and published it after being unable to find a publisher in Chile; it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece and has been translated into more than forty languages.
Where to start
The House of the Spirits
Complete The House of the Spirits Book List
- 1Buy
The House of the Spirits
Isabel Allende·1982·Allende's debut novel and the foundational work — four generations of the Trueba family from the 1920s to the Chilean coup of 1973; the essential starting point and her most celebrated work - 2Buy
Of Love and Shadows
Isabel Allende·1984·Allende's second novel — a journalist and a photographer investigating a political murder in an unnamed South American dictatorship; directly engaged with the political violence The House of the Spirits approaches through family saga - 3Buy
Eva Luna
Isabel Allende·1987·Allende's third novel — the story of Eva Luna, an orphan who becomes a storyteller; more picaresque than The House of the Spirits and organized around the power of narrative itself - 4Buy
Paula
Isabel Allende·1995·Allende's memoir, written while her daughter Paula was in a coma following a misdiagnosis — as moving and beautifully written as her fiction; for readers who want the autobiographical material behind The House of the Spirits
The House of the Spirits — Frequently Asked Questions
Is The House of the Spirits related to real events?
Yes — the coup at the end of the novel is based on the 1973 Chilean military coup that overthrew Salvador Allende, Isabel Allende's second cousin once removed. Allende fled Chile after the coup and wrote The House of the Spirits in Venezuela as a letter to her dying grandfather. The political violence of the coup is described with the accuracy of personal family history.
What order should I read Isabel Allende in?
Start with The House of the Spirits — it is her masterpiece and the work that established all her themes. Then Of Love and Shadows for the political material approached more directly, and Eva Luna for the picaresque narrative mode. Paula is best read after you know her fiction.
What is The House of the Spirits about?
The House of the Spirits follows four generations of the Trueba family in an unnamed country that is clearly Chile, from the early twentieth century to the military coup of 1973. The patriarch Esteban Trueba marries the clairvoyant Clara del Valle; their daughter Blanca falls in love with the peasant Pedro Tercero; and their granddaughter Alba becomes involved in the resistance to the coup and is imprisoned and tortured. The novel is simultaneously a family saga, a political novel, and a magical-realist exploration of women's experience.
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