The House of the Spirits: A Novel

“The House of Spirits” Book Review
By: Alexis Aguirre

The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende is an incredible and dramatic novel that takes you through several generations of the Del Valley and Trueba family. The novel is almost chilling at times because of the creepy and unorthodox events that take place in the book. Eerie and uncomfortable matters such as conducting an autopsy in a kitchen where the body is then molested to unusual things like a child willingly not speaking for years on end are examples of the disturbing events that happen throughout the novel. Allende seamlessly weaves the threads of magic realism from cover to cover keeping the reader intrigued and constantly questioning. Not having read many Latin American novels, this style of writing was new to me. I found that I very much enjoyed it because the mix of realistic and fantastical elements coinciding in the same scene kept me wondering and very attentive to try and stay on top of the story line. This style kept me fully enthralled and is one of the reasons I would describe this novel as a “page turner”.
I found the characters in the novel to be quite depthless, though the relationships between them are complicated, intriguing, and very well though out. I must say that at some points the relationships got so confusing that I had to re-read sections to be sure I was staying on top of the plot. This journey Allende takes her readers on is mastered by using the vehicle of Clara’s journal. Clara’s husband Esteban and their granddaughter Alba use the journal to try to put together the pieces to tell their family story. The result is a fantastical trip that intertwines the personal and political events of several generations weaving in love, magic, and fate. The importance of documenting their family history and the events of this time are what kept Alba going even after her grandfather died.
Being aware of the author’s ties to the historical matter addressed in this novel one may expect for the story to lean more towards a political lecture about the evils of the conservatives. However, the somewhat predictable message is delivered more with an inspirational tone celebrating that the “evil” forces of the right will never be able to crush the people’s will and their revolutionary spirit.
I very much enjoyed reading this book because it was unlike any other novels I have read. The ever evolving relationships kept me interested throughout the whole book, as well as the use of magic realism which was a new and very interesting way of writing that I had never seen before. I would recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a complex and who is willing to suspend their everyday beliefs and let their imaginations entertain them.

This is my favorite novel of all time. Isabel Allende encompasses all genres in this novel. There’s drama, romance, tragedy, history, and even political allegory. The relationships she builds are unique and troubling, which makes them all the more powerful. The rape and mutilation make this story so disturbing, but it contrasts with the love throughout the novel. Her writing is poetic and her characters are perfection. Even the meanings behind all of the characters’ names are intricately linked. Most importantly, Alba’s name means “dawn” and she is the dawn of a new life for this family in the end. I was left stunned by the message this novel delivers, and I passionately recommend it to everyone who is looking for a great read!

It is a multigenerational, matriarchal novel holding back no detail of its fabricated reality. The brutality of such events forms an entire family of humanity in all its imperfect glory and non-glory alike and surrounds its readers with an enthralling magic, figuratively and literally. In this exploration of shaping happenings readers may first be confused by the literary format. The narrator switches from first to third person without any apparent pattern or reason, albeit we are permitted a deeper sight into the development of this humanity.

The novel comes full circle upon itself in its completion, providing a redemptive sensation in the end that refreshingly avoids pushing the limits of cliché, inspirational literature. One can read the text in its entirety without callusing their perception of quality work through overexposure to the taste-decaying effects implicit in any variation of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" genre. Isabel Allende has satisfied our innate desire to taste justice for the storyline without any overpowering literary weaknesses.

From the first lines -- "Barrabas came to us by sea' -- I loved this book. I had never read any magical realism before and I think that this is a wonderful introduction to the genre. This book has prompted me to learn a lot more about Chile and south America, and was influential in making me choose to live in Chile next year as an exchange student. As a young person, I identified most with Blanca and the problems that she had with her father -- she was my favorite character. I have since read "Love in the Time of Cholera" which I did not enjoy as much, although it has a similar style. Also, "Eva Luna" by Allende is good, but I think that "The House of the Spirits" was such a magnificent book that little could compare. I read this book first in English and now I am attempting the original Spanish -- much harder, but also beautiful.

I'm only 12 years old and I am in the middle of the book. It was a very intriuging story, mostly about Esteban Trueban and the loss of his bride Rosa (the oldest of the fifteen children) with green hair and yellow eyes, she died from a brandy(gift) and it contained rat poison. Besides, Rosa's youngest sister Clara predicted that a member of a family is going to die and it remarkably came true. She saw the whole thing when Dr. Culvar and his "seduced-to-dead-Rosa" assistant dissect her sister on a kitchen table with blood all over. IT was the most disgusting part though. Esteban was about to write Rosa a letter the good news that he had the money for their marriage and their future. He loved her very much. Unfornuately, a peasant informed him the death of Rosa and he was out of rage. This is the most saddest part of the story, too. I was only around pages 44 right now, so I don't know what's going to happen in the second chapter. I hope this helps only for the first chapter. I only read the book for an hour, so I'm sorry if I didn't summarize the whole book, I'm eager to tell you the first chapter, which is one of my favorite chapter..hehe..oh well, hope this helps.

My mother gave me this book when I left the United States to study in Chile during college, but I never got around to reading it until now. I wish I hadn't waited so long! Although this entire epic novel was a pleasure to read, the second half was even better than the first half. Estaban Trueba's character was difficult to relate to at first (his raping and pillaging of the peasants made him highly unsympathetic). He was so awful that he came off as unrealistic and one dimensional, but this changed over the course of the book. In the end, Allende somehow takes all the disconnected parts of this story, both painful and joyful, and ties them together in such a profound and accurate manner that I found myself actually crying. Not many books do that to me.
I would recommend this book to anybody as great story, but I would also suggest studying a bit of Chilean history beforehand to fully understand all the political references ("A Nation of Enemies" is a great non-fiction book about Chile's recent past).

South American novelists have been treating us for years with their special blend of harsh reality and delightful fantasy. This, Allende's first, is lushly full of both. The Trueba family from the tyrannical patriarch Esteban to his wife Clara, whose lingering influence and downright control of her family remains long after her physical death to the shockingly rebellious daughter and granddaughter and all the parade of minor characters who waft through this meandering tale of less than 500 pages, are at once larger than life, yet drawn vividly from it. The entwined stories of poor judgment and errant passion in both love and politics (the two are forever married, however unhappily, in the literature of Latin America) capture and handily retain reader interest and keep the pages turning. This translation by Magda Bogin excellently retains Allende's fluid and vivacious prose style. This too makes for a great late summer read during hot summer nights

At first, I never wanted to pick this up. It had its deterrents: the cover with its colorful depiction of strong-willed women, the concise summarization on the opposite side of the cover, making it seem like a sweeping love affair, something Fabio might pose for, and the dedication of the book. The dedication reads "To my mother, my grandmother, and all the other extraordinary women of this story." This did not arouse my senses or alert my curiosity, and I was very close to putting it back on the shelf unread forever. But I picked it up again almost right away. My reasoning was if I can read a book which seems so unattractive to me, I can read anything. I've already read dozens of books from the male perspective - from just in the last year, such titles as Catch-22, The House of God, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values - all fun, intriguing, well-written guy books. But women read them too, and enjoy them just as much. I've only read two books by female authors in the last year, so I decided why not. It might even be good.

To call this "chick lit" would be such a degradation to the novel. (But this is the category I lumped in before I read it.) There are several male characters, by the way. And they're not at all stereotypical. All the men in the novel range from almost saintly to your ordinary human being. One man, a bastard child fuels his rage throughout the novel and at the end he is the only really evil character.

Some of it is told from the perspective of the patriarch of the family, Esteban, who grew up poor and made himself one of the richest and most powerful men in the country. There are no melodramatic passages in the book. The writing style is professional and admirable, and Magda Bogin does an exceptional job translating the work from its Spanish.

Parts of the books made me think of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, other parts made me think of My Life as a Dog (1985) or Pippi Longstocking (these were the earlier chapters). Further in, since it's such an epic family drama, I thought of the movie Doctor Zhivago (1965) and nearing the end, in the brutal chapters, I thought of the film Midnight Express (1978).

Though the novel never mentions - not once - the country it takes place in, we slowly begin to realize it's Chile in South America. In fact, I had to look at some of the blurbs on the book to figure that out. Isabel Allende was the niece of Salvador Allende who was a Socialist President in Chile - the first ever Socialist President. But he was soon after killed by the military when they bombed his Presidential Palace in a coup d'état in 1973. The military promised to bring the country back to a capitalist democracy, but instead put the country in a totalitarian regime, a police state, from 1973 to 1990, murdering about 3,000 civilians. This is discussed with such passion in the last few chapters.

It's really one of the best books of its kind. And despite the dedication, the summarization and cover, it is not a story about women. It is a story about people. It's not floozy romantic epic, it has intellect and is written with skill and passion. Read it.

The House of Spirits is an amazing novel, and after you have started reading it, it is impossible to put it down. Even though the central character of the story is Esteban Trueba and everything seems to revolve around him, it is the women of his family that dominate. Clara, Blanca, and Alba are strong women, who fight for what they believe in. They are criticized by society because of their revolutionary ideas, since they live in a conservative world that is slowly changing. Even though they are limited to express themselves freely, they find a way to help others and work towards defending the rights of women secretly. Esteban Trueba is a very strong character, and he has the typical qualities of a macho man; by putting these women in his life I think he is able to learn a very valuable lesson. He ends up suffering and realizing how wrong he was about some of his believes. He ends up understanding the needs and the personalities of his wife, daughter, and his granddaughter.

I first read this eighteen years ago, and it never left me. Rereading this book feels, to be very corny, like reuniting with an old lover.

Simply, it's the story of Esteban Trueba, an impoverished gentleman who works his way up to a vast fortune and political power in an unanmned Latin American country (it's actually Chile.), and his stormy relations with the women in his life. His mystical, serene wife Clara, who talks to spirits, his rebellious daughter Blanca, who falls in love with the son of a peasant, and grandaughter Alba, who combines traits of both her mother and grandmother.

Most readers comment on the women of this story, but I think the real focus is Don Esteban, a man whose short-sided arrogance leads him to make many mistakes, with consequences that don't come back to bite him so much as they come back to devour him, his family,and his entire world. In the end he's old, ill, and destroyed, trying to make peace with his grand-daughter. Latin American history is full of men like this. It's the women who endure.

None of Allende's subsequent books comes close to this. A lovely, haunting tale I'll probably read again. I probably won't wait eighteen years.

Allende's epic story about three generations of a family torn by death, anger, hate, betrayal, and mistrust is a masterpiece that comes nary so often. From the very first sentence, readers are transported to another world, one with myth and magic, pain and pleasure, conflict and conciliation. We are introduced to a foreign setting that becomes our own. It is a tribute both to Allende's brilliant and breathtaking writing and Bogin's outstanding translation that Chile becomes as real to us as the pages on the book. We are then thrust deep into an intricate, brilliant plot, and everything a character does, from the infinitesimal decisions to the bats of eyelashes, become our own. Everything about The House of the Spirits, from the suggestions of fate to the morally ambiguous characters, can be scrutinized as if everything's happening in not a world of fiction, but right before our eyes. After trials and tribulations, deaths and manhunts, fortunetellers and patriarchs, rapes and tortures, a national election and a CIA-sponsored coup, and much, much more, we arrive at the end, where a family ravaged by the circumstances of the world find that the cycle of love just might be able to overcome the harshest of realities. And it is at this end where we readers cry that this book mustn't stop. I never thought literature could be this good.

This is really a great book, I began reading it and could not put it down, in fact, I read it while traveling in Roatan, Honduras, I stayed at a small "Cabaña" and the book was already there when I got to the room, so every night I read while my wife was sleeping, well, my last night there I read until morning and slept an hour before heading to the airport to come back, of course I left the book where I had found it, so another traveler could enjoy it.
If you liked the movie you will love the book, in fact, the movie is only a part of the story, this book has many more characters.
It is the story of a Chilean family through several generations, life is not always easy even when they are wealthy, this is not a story about scary ghosts or anything of that sort, even dough there are some, it is really a story about life and love, about passion and desire, about being young, about revolution.
It is one of the best books I have read, I am sure you will enjoy it.

I won't spend too much time reviewing this book. I'm still trying to take it all in.

Good points: It's beautifully written, wonderful story, intrigue and disgust, love and rebirth, so many different themes that seem to all weave together effortlessly in the readers mind. The Characters are well written and all the main characters live and breath, they are certainly round and I found it impossible not to connect to just about every character in some way, even when I didn't want to. I loved that the book wasn't as detailed as it could be. I think Allende may have held back certain details so that the readers imagination could flourish and really grab a hold of what is there and build the settings for themselves. Like Tres Marias, in her details of this she gives just enough for us to see certain aspects that are necessary for the story but not too much to discourage the readers own interpretation.

Not-so good points: Other reviewers have talked about how the characters can be hard to distinguish because the names can become too similar, but overall this is not a problem because of the drastic differences in the personalities of the characters, which are really the important part, no? Also, the transitions between the intersecting lives can be tricky. You may find yourself needing to go back a few pages to make sure you didn't gloss over a transition to a completely different character's experience.

I feel like I could read this book again and it would become a completely different story.

This woman can write! Even translated, her talent blazes. The strength of this work, and others, (particularly Paula), is the wonderful women that it showcases. Exploring these women and their adventures is a joy, just in and of itself. Allende's characters are wonderfully mysterious and lush, and her vision and imagination combine to produce a work that is fresh, inviting, and courageous in scope. This was the first experience with this extremely talented woman, and her later books prove she is certainly not a one-book wonder. This book is about magic and spirits who weave spells, and in masterfully writing about this subject, the author will certainly magically weave her own spell as the pages are read. Savor the experience of being led on an etherial journey, and think about the subject matter. Highly, highly recommended!!

Read this if you love the Spanish language and/or culture. Isabel Allende is brilliant! My thoughts on just the first chapter or two, so as to not bore you . . . .

I found it very interesting that Allende really played on the fact that most families are accepting of any "odd" ducks within their midst until outsiders notice it. Clara's family barely noticed her as being unusual until people at church became aware of it and started talking. "Until that day they had never given a name to the eccentricities of their younger daughter . . ." Uncle Marcos on the other hand, embraced Clara's unusual talent, proclaiming that not only was it a potential source of income, but that his entire family had the gift and they were just not training it. :-)

I really liked the character of Uncle Marcos, the uncle who conceives of lunatic ideas and manages to turn them into celebrated holidays where people turn out to watch in their Sunday best. Clara surely must have been influenced by his larger than life character far after he died. He really shaped her life because they were very close and he was such an individual.

"Thanks to his invincible imagination and small dictionary. . . ."

"Marcos's heroic resurrection made everyone forget about his barrel-organ phase."

She's very funny isn't she?

This book was my first "for pleasure" read as a young adult. (Until then, I generally only read books I was assigned.) I was captured by Allende's world and totally transported to it. It was the first book that I couldn't wait to continue reading, that I would think about when I was doing other things, and that I would skip other things so I could read it! This book is a perfect example of "magical realism" -- where magical events are a part of everyday life. Most masters of this genre -- like Borges -- fail a little bit on the realism side with farcical, unbelievable events going on. But Allende's realism is both magical and acceptable. It's the magic of everyday life, and she weaves it in seamlessly. I am glad this was my first real novel that I read, but it spoiled me for other novels. None of them ever come close to being a beautiful story, family saga, that reads beautifully and has this fantasy, magical element.

I can't possibly describe how impressed and how deeply engrossed I was with "House of the Spirits" and its author Isabelle Allende. I wish I was fluent in Spanish so I could have read this book in its purest form and experienced my journey of Chilean history that way. Although, Magda Bogin has done a fabulous job of bringing this essential work of literature to English readers all over the world (it's still an incredible read as a tranlated piece). Ok, Isabelle Allende...have any of you ever run into such an inspiration as this woman? She expresses and shares so much incredible emotion throughout this book I'm amazed at her intensity as an author. Her need to tell the story of her homeland, her family, her rich heritage through novel form and not biography makes this a powerful read. You can read this story on two levels: fiction or non-fiction; it really is both. The agony, the magic, the intensity of this story definitely pulls you into the world of South America from the early 20th century up to the mid 1970s. This is a huge chunk of time to cover and the tale of the Trueba family is an epic of mellodramatic proportions. I loved experiencing the sagas with this family. I learned so much about Chilean politics;I shared in the magic and spirituality of Allende's ancestors. I was open to the harshness and starkness of the story as well as its beauty. There is a lot of both. This book is authentic, natural and intense. It has left an impression on me that I can't even begin to describe. This is the best I can do. Allende is a powerhouse writer. I'm going to follow this story up with either "Paula" or "My Invented Country". Also, try to get a hold of a copy of "Giving Birth, Finding Form" a fantastic audio interview with Isabelle Allende, Alice Walker, and Jean Shinoda Bolen. Isabelle is pure inspiration. It was recorded three weeks after the death of her daughter Paula. You can learn so much about her personality; it makes for a more enriching read!

I have a special connection to "The House of Spirits," as my wife his Chilean, and her father was a supporter of Salvador Allende (the Candidate). "The House of the Spirits" is an excellent look into the history and mindset of Chile and why President Allende's rise and fall was so volatile.
"House of the Spirits" follows one family through four generations, telling the story of Esteban Trueba, and through him, the history of Chile. Isabel Allende (niece of Salvador)tells a rich story, similar in style to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. While some parts were hard to follow and I sometimes wondered what Allende's point was, the book really delivers a solid ending that explains the necessity of all that came before.
"House of Spirits" is a well-written book and I can see why Isabel Allende is one of my wife's favorite authors. I highly recommend reading this to anyone interested in the history of Chile, or anyone who enjoys the "magic realism" of South American authors such as Allende and Marquez.

I had to read this for my highschool english class a few months ago. To tell you the truth I did NOT want to read it. But once I got past the first couple chapters, I was hooked. I read it in one weekend. It was so different from anything I've ever read.
Allende's writing is so different from that of writers today. It is powerfully descriptive, plunging the audience into the action, forcing them to feel as the characters do. The stories told in this novel are told in such a dramatic weave of characters and plot, that once they are read, they can never be forgotten. The plot of HOS is vivid and involved, twisting here and bending there. With so much happening in the first chapter, so many characters, so much description, it is quite obvious that the rest of the story will be filled with action and that we'll meet many more people. The reader can tell that the author is quite certain as to the direction of her story; it's twisted, yet logical; it's complex, yet understandable. Even with so many characters, one doesn't confuse them because it's as if we know them. By the end of the first chapter, we know that Esteban is a very proud, temperamental man who believes in working his way up. We know that the Del Valle family is into politics and putting forth a good image. We know that Clara is a little strange.  We see a man's suffering and love, a family dealing with an odd child; we see two deaths, we witness an autopsy and meet and entourage of characters. Allende's strong narrative abilities are quite evident in this first chapter.
I made my mother and her best friend read it and THEY LOVED IT. I tried to get my dad to read it, but he couldnt get past the third chapter. Many of the boys at my school found it quite difficult to swallow as well. Maybe its a girl thing. I loved it. I have since then bought three of ALlende's books and loved them all.

The strength behind this novel's success was not merely in it's ability to give us, the reader, a glimpse into the life, loves and hardships of a cast of characters, brimming with life and feeling, but in it's ability to make us adore them so dearly. Spanning four generations, the story is set against the back drop of a country which is slowly (initally, but coming certainly to a head nearing it's conclusion) growing and changing as old ideals conflict with new; an analogy one could make with the main family. There is certainly something whimsical about this novel, and it's this wonderful sense of magic, with a house teeming with spirits that lends to it's success, for even with these themes of childlike wonderment in the form of Clara, we are still reminded of the harshness of life in the form of her husband, Estaban. But we also learn about the ability for humans as a whole to grow and learn from their mistakes, and that it is almost never too late to love and reconcile our differences. This novel is one of hope. Of the wonderment and novelty of life as viewed by a child. And of redemption. It is a truely a great novel.

Isabel Allende is an accomplished and talented author, an artist with words.
The multi-generational story of the Trueba family is used to weave an intricate tale of Chilean history, from the early turn of the century through the upheaval and revolution of the 70's.
While the background is Chilean historical fiction, the real depth of the story are the unique individuals of the Trueba clan.
The patriarch of the family possesses a wild, volatile, uncontrolled temper and a deep obsessive ability to love through possession.
The woman of the Trueba family are amazingly unique and sincere and at times seemingly untouched by the day to day realities of life.
The House of Spirits is a story of strong love, acceptance, betrayal, class prejudice and dreams. It is a story of how one family deals with all these issues and after all the dust has settled, those left standing realize the importance and depth of family bonds.
Allende's novel is a touching familial tale that transcends both time and location and opens your eyes and heart to the possibilities life offers.

I ordered this book because I had a gift card to spare, and my fiancee is from Argentina and read all of Allende's novels in their original Spanish. In the same order I picked up Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude," since I'd heard them compared constantly. I rifled through "The House of the Spirits" in about three days and was mesmorized the whole time. I looked for excuses at work to read since I was captivated by the sweeping history of the Trueba family, and was hooked on the "magic realism" used by Allende to convey the most amazing of events in the most practical of prose. At that time I declared "The House of the Spirits" one of the best books I'd read in a long time, and recommended it to a few friends, each of whom subsequently loved it.
Then I picked up "One Hundred Years of Solitude," Marquez's defining work. The similarities are eery. One can tell that Allende worshipped Gabo's style and sought to create "Tres Marias" in the image of his "Macondo." The plot devices and characters all seemed a little too similar for me and I began to think less of Allende's work, simply based on the fact that "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is an outright classic of literature in every way, and when examined side by side, "The House of the Spirits" comes out the weaker of the two.
Given some time to reflect, I've come to the conclusion that "The House of the Spirits" is an incredible read, for the casual and serious reader alike. It may not be at the level of Marquez's work, but as a stand-alone novel (which it is in every sense and wasn't created for the purpose of intense comparison) it is delightfully complex and touching, as it cleverly examines de facto matriarchy in the official world of patriarchy, as well as provides a dramatic and nuanced explanation of South American democratic movements of the time period. Read this book (but only before "One Hundred Years of Solitude")!

My first reaction after reading the first chapter of this book is that it felt very similar (in style) to Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I wanted to say it is full myth and Latin America history but then when I thought about the story I realized that myth and magic is part of Latin America which is one of the points that Allende repeats throughout her great story. This explains the similarity in style with Marquez since he also portrays Latin America.

I like Allende's style, she keeps the reader engaged throughout the book and leaves something to the imagination by not dwelling too much on the details.

The story is great and it is basically the history of Chile through the life of one family that never sees a dull moment.

I highly recommend this book.

Note: There is a movie based on this book (it has the same title). I would recommend reading the book first then watching the movie just to see how your imagination fairs next to the director's.

Isabel Allende is a fantastic storyteller, and she probably deserves the million of dollars she got for this. The characters are well developed, and this story is a rich and mystical concoction hovering halfway between fairy-tale and political polemic. It is a beautiful and sensuous piece of writing, and is often hailed as a supreme example of the school of magical realism.
The problem is that Allende's own voice is stifled by that of Gabriel Garcia Marques, and there are too many of his opinions, descriptions, sentiments, and even characters echoing through the work. I doubt very much that Allende is a true magical realist in the way she would like us to believe: most of the `magical' aspects of the novel have direct parallels in Garcia's One Hundered Years of Solitude. If Garcia Marques is the Master, then Allende makes a poor apprentice: there is none of the easy blending, the merging of Divine and Profane; the sense of ruined beauty which infuses Garcia Marques' prose. What we see in The House of the Spirits is flattery and hero-worship in the form of clumsy imitation.
Nevertheless, this is a book that could only come from Latin America: it is fantastic, rich, and extremely pleasing if it were possible to consider it in isolation. The genius and originality shines through in Allende's canny treatment of her characters - where even the monsters are described compassionately. The final chapters, based no doubt on Allende's personal experience of the Chile's military coup are the most brilliant and moving, and reflect the pain, endurance and tremendous resilience of a whole generation of Chilean women. It is Allende's lyrical feminism, and redeeming compassion, which makes this novel truly great. But she should have trusted her own voice. It's a beautiful one.

This book is so beautiful and moving. She uses the perfect amount of humor and magic realism to color up a powerful and addictive book. I was quite taken aback when I finished it. It was one of those books that after finishing it I scoured the Internet for as much information as possible on the book and about the author. I found out that the book started out as a letter Allende was writing to her dying grandfather and it is loosely based on a few horrific historical events that she was very much a part of. This, to me, makes the book even more compelling and important.

The review on the front cover says "Spectacular!" How often is this superlative used to describe a book?

I have recommended it to all of my friends and I can't emphasize enough how great it is. I don't want to over hype the book, so I won't drag on about how much I love it, so please do yourself a favor and read it!!

This saga depicting the evolving generations of a family, is a visionary exploration of the psychology of family, culture, and state.

Filled with heartwarming, wrenching, and unexpected human stories and adventures, it keeps the reader riveted to it.

As Isabel Allende's first book it is a remarkable work of genius, as well as a window on another way of life, of such a richness that it is unforgettable.

It's one of those books to go back to again and again, for its beauty, and the brilliancy of its author.

This book had every element that usually makes for a story I love: multigenerational, political, epic, with hints of magic, romance and intrigue. So why was I so utterly bored out of mind from the very first sentence all the way to the anticlimactic conclusion?

Perhaps it's the translation. I don't read Spanish nearly well enough to experience the book as it was written, so I wonder if I might have enjoyed it more if I did. Regardless, I felt like I spent this entire book waiting for the action to begin. Never, at any point, does the reader actually enter the plot. It's always being simply explained to you. Reading this book was like a reading a summary of a different, much better book. It felt like Cliff Notes. I spent the whole story two steps removed from the characters, having their thoughts and actions and motives explained to me rather than experiencing them myself. I guess nobody every told Isabel Allende that you should show, not tell.

I'm stunned to see this has 4 1/2 stars on average. I found it dull, boring, and incomplete. I'm sad to say so, as I had such high hopes and had heard such great things. If I could have read the original book - the one this one was supposed to be, if I could've enjoyed the action from inside rather than as an observer - I think I might've liked it quite a bit more.

At first, when i got this book as a summer reading assignment, I thought "oh wow, another thick book to make the summer go by even slower". The first chapter really dragged, but after Allende really gets into the characters and the plot, things start to twist and turn everywhere. Allende's use of narration brings life to the book. She allows the main character, Esteban Trueba, his granddaughter, Alba, and a 3rd neutral subject narrate the story. This book represents 3 generations of the Trueba family, and brings out every flaw, weakness, and conspiracy within them, this presents the reader with a great sense of family value and morals, and the outcomes when those values and morals are put to the test. This has got to be one of the most twisted plots ever composed, yet very captivating, haunting, and enigmatic. I would recommend this book to anyone of mature age and open minded literary taste.

I loved this book and its allegorical style to real life. Of course, mixed in with some mystical and the unexplained but that is what made it fantastic!! Isabel Allende has a style for capturing the cultural values and woes associated with real life!! If people are smart, they would do well to take notice of such things and realize the nonsensical layers of ideologies we all live under!!!

Allende's The House of the Spirits is the epitome of the magic realism novel. If readers familiarize themselves with this genre, they will find the book infinitely more accessible and enjoyable.

The novel is the multi-generational story of the Trueba family. Like much magic realism, the book lacks a clear plot line. This is in part due to the irreverence shown to chronology and to the multi-generational family story that is common to magic realism. Allende writes as if she is recording family history. Some details recorded seem insignificant and others seem random. This is not an accident or the result of poor writing. Allende is deliberately allowing a bit of chaos because real life is often chaotic. This is the realism aspect of magic realism.

The magic aspect is seen throughout the book, especially in the character of Clara the clairvoyant. Magic is treated as commonplace and very real. Only in magic realism can a mother bathe her daughter or give food to the poor just as easily as predict the future and move things with her mind. Only in magic realism can a Senator vehemently oppose Marxism within the walls of Congress as well as shrink daily due to a curse.

Readers expecting a book to follow the rules will be frustrated by The House of the Spirits. But those willing to allow for a different kind of story-telling will find the characters engaging, the passions vibrant, and the moral strong.

This is one of the best books of the twentieth Century to me. It is written in the backdrop of twentieth Century Chilean history and focuses on the Trueba family. Each member of that family is introduced in the initial chapters and eventually the reader understands them as if they are people from real life. The narrative is simply breathtaking and character development crosses all standards. Wrapped in magic realism, this is a story of Chilian history, of family, of individualism, of life and of the genetics of prejudices and fears. The story will keep you glued to your seat and the ending is going to make you smile and cry at the same time. A masterpiece of twentieth Century literature.

I was reluctant to read the book at first, in part because it was a required reading for a project and in part because I had read something saying it had no plot. With regards to the latter statement nothing could be farther from the truth. By definition a plot is "the pattern of events or the main story." Well the main story of this book is that of a family that changes from generation to generation, the political developments that lead to an oppressive regime that nobody wants, and how the world is a tapestry in which the dark and magical past mingles with the present. Magical realism is deftly used to express the emotions, the innocense, and the bliss of old stories that is entertwined in this story where no person is without great passion.

Isabele Allende is a masterful storyteller, who can drag you into worlds alien and familiar, or both at once. I was surprised when I finished this book, because I had been paying attention to one character the whole time but, in the end, I realized that the book was centered upon another. This makes it frustrating at times, when you want to see some judgement on the characters and the author refuses to do it. But once finished, the pieces fit together and feel complete. There is a lot of stuff going on in this story, and the reader emerges from it feeling that they have brought something with them. This is a book to read and reread.

This was the first Isabel Allende book I ever read. I first read it as a young girl, and since that time I have read it over again countless times. What amazes me most is that it still has the ability to transport me to another place another time. The language is beautiful and often poetic, and the charecters are real. I grew up surrounded by hispanic culture and Allende captures the spirituality, the superstitions and the sexual and age dynamics of that culture truthfully. Allende introduced me to the horrors of the Pinochet regime with this book, and thereby launched a career in learning as much about it as possible and working to bring justice to those his regime affected. This is one of those books that has the power to change you, to get under your skin, to open your eyes to another world and culture, and to the realities of the modern age.

When an author is able to take a far-fetched idea and pull it together into a plausible story, I'm usually smitten. Call me smitten. Isabel Allende builds a beautiful, dramatic tale of spirits, powers, family and love into The House of Spirits. She chronicles the life of her ancestors and their mystical powers in a tale that's heartbreaking as well as uplifting. Only Allende has been able to carry off this combination, in my opinion.
The story is strong, if not a tad too long. In typical Allende style, the book is wrapped in beautiful, poetic description. It's a strong showing by a strong author.

I love books that take you through the various generations of a family. This book does just that. The author did a stella job of describing the time and everything that was going on. In facts she did so well, that you really need to remind yourself that you are reading a work of fiction. The bond between mothers and daughters and lovers is a great theme to the book. I totally enjoyed it and think you will too.

In the House of the Spirits there are love affairs, hot air balloons, dog fur rugs, an old man who breaks the telephone when he gets bad news - my coworker who I would often share parts of the book with thinks that it sounds like the television show Arrested Development. Arrested Development, maybe, if you take some individual incidences out of context - I was reminded more of Colleen McCullough's the Thornbirds, just on a different continent. The women are strong and complex who surivive with patience and outlasting while the men exercise their brunt, power, money and influence. But there is humor in this book - which I believe Allende uses to remind us that sometimes humor is what allows humans to survive day to day in situations that they cannot change. In contrast there is also immense suffering. The House of Spirits is a saga, and don't start to read it unless you are prepared to invest yourself in the Trueba family. Allende's characters possess such different and intriguing personalities and emotions that as a reader you are able to understand every character's point of view and realize why they do what they do - both the good and the bad guys. At several points I wanted to laugh and cry and cheer out loud. The House of the Spirits is quite personal to the Trueba family.

Though kind of confusing at the beginning, The House of the Spirits nevertheless carried me once again into the story with Allende's rich prose and wonderful storytelling. The House of the Spirits is another great book. It tells the story of the Trueba family, following them through many years. It's really a wonderful novel, full of "love, magic, and family pride." Once again, Allende has interesting, rich characters who populate the novel and make it so fun to read. Though this novel had brutal parts, I still liked it. Read Isabel Allende, whether it's The City of the Beasts series, Daughter of Fortune, or The House of the Spirits. Just read her. Seriously.

*You can read all of my reviews at my book review blog, novareviews.blogspot.com*

I am an avid reader on my own, and I can count on one hand the number of books that have touched me as deeply as this book did. The novel stands alone without the reader's having any political or historical background to pin it in place. However, I was enthralled by the way in which Allende used her characters not only describe their reactions to the political upheaval in CHile, but also the way in which she encapsulated the reactions of all the classes. I could weep at the injustices suffered by the lower classes, and yet feel the upper classes fear and indignation. Allende's gift is that she could convey seemingly diametrically opposing views without resorting to age old stereotypes.

I have often seen this book sitting on store shelves over the years. The cover, somehow, always turned me off. Looked somewhat juvenile. I knew that this book was probably worthwhile, seeing as it is often required reading for AP Literature courses. It wasn't until it was selected for my bookclub that I picked it up. What an unexpected surprise! Not only was it a worthwhile literary work, but it was actually entirely engaging, interesting, and enjoyable from the get-go. It has a little something for everyone: romance, history, politics, and action. I can't say enough about this book. Just wonderful! Don't wait to read this one!!!

How many can you take?! And they all do the same thing. An in depth look at one of them would be enough. I don't care which, they were all essentially the same character. The repetitive cyclical nature of this plot got so tedious. I didn't care enough about any of the characters and the political struggle was dull and depressing. The use of the supernatural was interesting, though, and the novel is certainly ambitious although i would say its reach exceeds its grasp. This book is a long and exhausting load of ideas that should have been shortened and refined.

What a magnificent story teller Isabel Allende is! I was impressed with the way she intertwined fact with fiction, and more than a fair share of eccentricities to create a truly wonderful story.
Although many of these events and people were not ficticious to her...I was impressed by the way she portrayed the heroes and heroines...and the compassion and forgiveness she showed towards the 'enemies' of this story.
I know very little about Latin american history, and even less about Augusto Pinochet and of Chile under his regime..but this did not prevent me from following and getting involved in this story since the themes were so universal.
I would recommend this book to almost anyone, but especially too people like me who have no knowledge of the political/historical period of this time and place...as it opens your eyes...and inspires you to gain more knowledge.

Allende has created a marvelouse book with a style quite different from most other authors. The story takes the reader through three generations of a single family. The wonderful and beautiful way Allende has composed this culturally enhancing and "unable to put down" book is really marvelouse. The one downfall is "Clara the Clairvoyant" sometimes turns dissapointingly unrealistic as well as her mothers ability to contact the spirtual world (which is only one aspect of the book and should not be viewed as a turn-off). If you're simply looking for a good book and if you're not too skeptical of a person - I suggest reading "House of Spirits". ~15 yrs.

I read this book in Spanish, my third language. I am from Romania but I live in the States and my major is Spanish. The first reason I would recommend this book is the language and style in which it is written (I am referring to the Spanish version) Very, very accessible, I must say, and even if chronologically Spanish is my third lannguage I chose the Spanish version in order to have access to the real thing. I was surprised by the natural flow of vocabulary and the clear language. I did not open the dictionary once and could not force myself to close the book until the finish line. Again, apart from the artistic qualities expressed by other reviewers beforehand that I will not repeat, buy this book for its accessibility in Spanish. The language is such a good match for the content, the musicality of the castellano pairs the magical events described and everything from the verbs, tenses and words used come together as a ticket into another dimmension. One almost feels native reading this book, the language is simple and the syntax will not give you any troubles.

I compared this novel to the writtings of Rosario Castellanos (Mexico) and, while she is still my favourite, I must admit that I would constanly need the help of a dictionary due to the use of regionalisms. If you have a good command of Spanish and you are prone to dreaming and letting yourself captured in the words that you read, if you can see beyond the lines and imagine the characters and the world described, read this novel in Spanish.

The last chapter "La hora de la verdad" in which Alba's torture is described is charming, if I can use that word. It made me cry like a baby because I remembered similar accounts of torture, but by comnunists in Romania. Isabel Allende has made me feel the pain, smell the blood and see the horrors more than any other account of torture in just a few pages. Her words are stronger than images.

"The House of the Spirits" is a passionate, full and wonderfully written book that spans generations. I was so entralled with this book that I just couldn't stop reading it until I was all done. I found myself transported to a far away time and place with such ease. Author, Isabel Allende is wonderfully talented and has such a tremendous gift with words, storytelling, characterization, and movement. This book never dragged and, I was never tempted to skip ahead. I wanted to savior every word. I really loved it!

Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits is a powerful novel in which Allende uses magical realism to create dynamic characters and supernatural occurrences. Set in Chile in the early 20th century, Allende's novel explores social injustices and the role of peasants and the working class as well as the role of women and the redemptive influence of love.
The House of the Spirits follows the lives of a wealthy and eccentric family who remain together primarily out of love for their matriarch, Clara, who talks with spirits and predicts the future. Clara is usually off in another world and does not seem to pay much attention to what is happening around her, yet she has a great capacity for love and compassion and actually sees things more clearly than most. Although Clara is a somewhat complex character, her husband is much harder to understand. The patron, Esteban Trueba, is generally an antagonist, but Allende uses him as narrator so that the line between antagonist and protagonist blurs and the reader cannot make sense of this man who possesses a violent temper and arrogant sexism while being one of the most passionate characters in the novel. These two opposite personalities have children and grandchildren just as eccentric as themselves and through it all, the women in the family shine as the powerful and honest relationships that they share remain the most important connections in the novel.

"House Of The Spirits" is an inferior reflection of "100 Years Of Solitude" but still somehow the SAME BOOK!!!!

Told in a weird narrative that flip flops from first-person to third - (and sloppily too) - House of the Spirits is about 4 generations of a very turbulent family in South America. The main character is Esteban Trueba who is as fierce with his temper as he is with his genitals. He RUNS the town of Tres Marias with an iron fist, having built it up from nothing into a strong, industrial corner of the country. He's a jerk and almost nobody likes him but he forces himself on people because he hates being alone. Nobody has a choice either - he's the boss and what he says goes.

His wife is Clara, a woman with magical powers and an aloof but ignorant demeanor. Her very existence is way too akin to the wild machinations that drove many a plot in Solitude. Everything she does is as far-fetched and stretched as she reads minds and performs acts of telekinesis. Her late sister was Rosa The Beautiful, who like Solitude's Remedios The Beauty, is so ridiculously captivating that she dies young because no one so gorgeous should have to deal with the rigors of time hurting their peerless looks. Clara has twins who, like the twins in Solitude, are absolutely nothing alike and take different paths in life. Ferula is her sister-in-law, a virgin spinster like Amaranta in Solitude. Her son-in-law is Jean Satigny, a foreign girly snob who has softer hands than any woman - you know, like Pietro Crespi in Solitude. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!

Solitude was written in '69, House in 82. Solitude won the Nobel Prize, House was a bestseller. Solitude has the word "solitude" on almost every 400+ page, House has it a lot. House wants to be Solitude so bad! But it has one simple problem: It's NOT as good as Solitude.

I want to ask Isabelle Allende something. Do you have any books that YOU'VE written? I like your style so perhaps I'll check your stuff out again, I just wanna make sure that you've written something that wasn't written already. I don't need any...The Picasso Riddle....The Baron of Monte Carlo...you know, more rip-offs. I need a real, original book from you and if you can do that, I'll take a look. Just don't b.s. me anymore.

The weird part is, I really liked the book because, heck...I LOVED 100 Years Of Solitude!!! So I guess I like chocolate cupcakes because I like chocolate cake. One is the lesser form of the other. So, I'm not recommending this book. I want to expand my mind and learn new things, not go 400 pages repeating someone else's work. Now, I'll see the movie, starring Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close and Winona Ryder. Oh, and Antonio Banderas, somehow the only freakin' Hispanic actor in the whole darned thing.

Read Solitude instead. And feel free to waste time commenting about how wrong I am and how great your opinion is. Face facts - there's too much Solitude in this thing. Too much.

Isabel Allende has magic inside of her. I say this because it takes pure magic to make me enjoy a book as much as I enjoyed this one. At first, it started off a bit slow and tedious but once I managed to get through the first chapter, everything else that followed was brilliant. Her novel, The House of the Spirits, has a bit of everything. It has a South American vibe, political warfare, a big family, conflicts between men and women in society, physical abuse, and this is just the beginning.

The characters are very well developed and this impressed me. I feel like I know so much about each individual whether they are the protagonists, Clara and Esteban Trueba, or minor characters like Amanda and Transito Soto. Allende includes all of her characters consistently throughout the novel which is important and key. They all somehow tie in together creating this mass web of an intricate and interesting story.
The plot takes course over a long period of time, a generation it seems like. Clara is clairvoyant and very spiritual and intuitive while her husband is ambitious and pretty much evil. Esteban rapes girls and obsesses over his wife, Clara. They have three children, Jaime, a scholar, Nicolas, an adventurer, and Blanca, a girl in love with a man she is forbidden to see. There are passionate relationships and themes of forbidden love and pride. It seems like a lot of the story also focuses on the difference between men and women and the rich and the poor. Esteban prohibits Blanca from seeing a boy from the Tres Marias. His name was Pedro Tercero.
At times the story was a bit disturbing. I found it a little graphic when the setting was at whorehouses or scenes of rape.
Overall, thanks to my English teacher for assigning this book to read. Had it not been for her, I would have probably never been exposed to such a wonderful piece of modern literature.

Be prepared for another reality, where skin is transparent and hair can be naturally green. This book will transport you there, and make you want to go back.
It's a tale of a family and a tale of politics, and a story of generations. Each character can exist in the new reality, along with the others, and I was transported there, too. Allende is the best of story weavers, for there's more than just telling a story going on. The author's vision is one of characters who develop, and live to the fullest of their individual capacity, including moving salt shakers and furniture. Read it once, and again.

Yes, this novel bears great similarities to Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" but that's like saying that my family is similar to other Hispanic families! Besides which, that novel is about men whereas "House of the Spirits" is very much about the women in the family - the male characters are important but they revolve around the women. I'd read "Of Love and Shadows" (in Spanish) in one day - couldn't set it down - so when my cousin gave me a translated (English) copy of "House..." I plunged in. Years later, I re-read it in Spanish and was amazed by the fact that it had lost nothing in the translation!
I LOVE this book: the characters, the story remain a part of me to this day, I think of them often even though I last read "House..." at least ten years ago. If you're into magic realism or just want a taste of Latin American family life, this is your book. Then go seek out "Of Love and Shadows" (my favorite heart-wrenching love story of all time), "Eva Luna", "Cuentos de Eva Luna", etc. I don't think you can remain untouched by the characters and the stories they emerge from.

Once in a while, I come across something that makes me think about life in its entirety. Rarely have I come across a novel that truly portrays humanity, and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende is one of these novels. Although I have read this work in translation and may not have had the benefit of getting to know the Chilean culture beforehand (it is set in Chile, albeit an unnamed country in the novel itself), it is nevertheless an enthralling work. The novel depicts Chile and its rough and turbulent political atmosphere in the background while drawing the reader in irrevocably into the lives of the Trueba family in the foreground. The reader is intimated with every fiber of their lives. We follow the family, both matriarch and patriarch, from their childhood to their old age and eventual death. The reader sees Esteban Trueba, the violent, sharp-tongued patriarch - really a caring yet reserved man - and Clara, a detached, spiritual woman who seems fragile and yet keeps the house together in a way. The reader witnesses the tragedies, the successes, and basically accomplishments and flaws of many generations. Tragedy, love, hubris, and sacrifice are all major forces at work in this masterpiece. What really captured my heart was the way this novel is not just about the Trueba but also, in a way, about us and the world today. The reader becomes part of their family and feels what the Truebas feel. Towards the end of the novel, Alba, the beloved granddaughter of Esteban Trueba, reminisces about her life and the lives of her family. It was a truly heart-wrenching piece of writing when Alba told the reader how she no longer cared about her rivalries and how everything is how it is meant to be. At this point, anyone with half a heart would be forced to think about life, what the world is, and what we make of our own lives. The House of the Spirits is not a novel I will soon forget, and the reader who picks it up will never want to put it down, such is the enchanting and beguiling yet perfectly human and touching epic of the Trueba family.

This absorbing epic kept me mesmerized from first page to last. Isabel Allende created and defined characters so fascinating to me, I longed to live among them. I am no historian, and don't even pretend to like politics, but this book of turn-of-the-century South America blends everything so flawlessly, it remains one of my all-time favorites. The generations of the Trueba family are comprised of people too complex to be labled heroes or villians. Allende's skilled writing can make you accept clairvoyance as a talent no more bizarre than singing. She tells her powerful tales with detailed imagery beyond comparison. It makes "Gone With the Wind" green with envy.

After forcing myself through about fifty pages, I decided this book was average and abandoned it for something else. When I came back and picked it up a few months later, though, it was a completely different novel and I literally had trouble putting it down. It made me late for work. This is the kind of book that might not catch you the first time, even if you particularly enjoy the South American magical realism thing (I do), but if you put it aside and never try reading it again, you are missing out on one of the most wonderful and transfixing books out there.

So. It might take two tries to get into this, but it absolutely deserves them. If you don't like it on the first attempt, pick it up later and just start wherever you left off. After another ten minutes, you'll go back to the beginning.

The House of a Spirits was a well written book that I enjoyed. It portrays the movement of Marxism very well. The book shows how it is impossible to attain a Marxist system in such a large nation. It describes the rise of Marxism, but then shows how it fails because of the flaws in the system. For example, a criterion for Marxism is that people are not greedy and do not wish for extra profit. However, this is not true for people which causes a power struggle between various groups of the nation. It are these ideas that are well portrayed in the book. One of my criticisms is the book covers such a large time span. It also gives many instance of foreshadowing. When the book foreshadows, it makes the event that is foreshadowed seem very dramatic and exciting. However, when the event actually occurred, it became very dull. For example, the book foreshadows how Amanda was suppose to give her life for Miguel. However, she does it in a way the reader would not expect and leave him or her a little unsatisfied. Overall though, the book was excellent and should be read by all mature audiences.

Over the summer I read a book by Julia Alvarez titled, In the Time of the Butterflies and it dealt with the corrupt governments that once existed in the Dominican Republic, and though politics is not a central concern in Isabel Allende's House of Spirits a friend still recommended it. One major drawback from the book is that the plot is slow in developing, because so many eccentric characters are being introduced that it's difficult to pick up on everything.

House of Spirits is a story about three generations of the Trueba family, who face major political and cultural changes. The patriarch, Esteban Trueba, has to mold himself from a hot tempered young man who loves success and control, into a compassionate man who learns to love all the women that come into his life and finds use for his need to control things through politics. The three Trueba women are each peculiar and celestial in looks and nature. The women bring a feministic air to the novel in the sense that they exude the strength and independence that the women of their time were slowly beginning to obtain.

In her novel, Isabel Allende never states the name of the country in which the story is taking place, but she implies it through descriptive narratives. In House of Spirits there is no clear cut protagonist or antagonist, but many times Esteban Trueba is made the protagonist because of his very opinionated beliefs, especially in regard to women. Often Clara, Esteban's wife, appears as the main character because her quiet, natural beauty and magical determination often collide with her counterpart's selfish and obstinate ways.

The novel brings up significant issues that were occurring at the time, things like oppression and chauvinism. Isabel Allende depicts the oppression of the peasants through Esteban Trueba's brutality and unkindness. Towards the beginning of Esteban's manhood he fulfills his lust by attacking the young peasant women who work on his land. Allende does not coincidentally give Esteban and Clara Trueba a daughter and granddaughter opposed to a son or a grandson because she wants to represent how time is changing and how a man as stubborn as Trueba can learn to accept the ideas and beliefs of his granddaughter. Ironically, Esteban loves his granddaughter more than anyone else in the world, he loves her even with her radical political beliefs, and pants instead of skirts.

The book exceeded my expectations in almost every way because it tested the limits that many Latin American authors refused to test, and gave me insight to the ideals of a society that is different then my own. Isabel Allende wrote very fluidly, allowing the quirks of her characters to express themselves rather than the writing to explain the characters' oddness. The one issue that I had with the book was the magical qualities that the Trueba women possessed, though it added a unique style to the novel that could be attributed to the "Santeria" that is ever popular amongst Latin American cultures, it ruined the history and importance of society at that time. I highly recommend the novel because it has a lot to offer both intellectually and leisurely.

"House Of The Spirits" is an inferior reflection of "100 Years Of Solitude" but still somehow the SAME BOOK!!!!

Told in a weird narrative that flip flops from first-person to third - (and sloppily too) - House of the Spirits is about 4 generations of a very turbulent family in South America. The main character is Esteban Trueba who is as fierce with his temper as he is with his genitals. He RUNS the town of Tres Marias with an iron fist, having built it up from nothing into a strong, industrial corner of the country. He's a jerk and almost nobody likes him but he forces himself on people because he hates being alone. Nobody has a choice either - he's the boss and what he says goes.

His wife is Clara, a woman with magical powers and an aloof but ignorant demeanor. Her very existence is way too akin to the wild machinations that drove many a plot in Solitude. Everything she does is as far-fetched and stretched as she reads minds and performs acts of telekinesis. Her late sister was Rosa The Beautiful, who like Solitude's Remedios The Beauty, is so ridiculously captivating that she dies young because no one so gorgeous should have to deal with the rigors of time hurting their peerless looks. Clara has twins who, like the twins in Solitude, are absolutely nothing alike and take different paths in life. Ferula is her sister-in-law, a virgin spinster like Amaranta in Solitude. Her son-in-law is Jean Satigny, a foreign girly snob who has softer hands than any woman - you know, like Pietro Crespi in Solitude. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!

Solitude was written in '69, House in 82. Solitude won the Nobel Prize, House was a bestseller. Solitude has the word "solitude" on almost every 400+ page, House has it a lot. House wants to be Solitude so bad! But it has one simple problem: It's NOT as good as Solitude.

I want to ask Isabelle Allende something. Do you have any books that YOU'VE written? I like your style so perhaps I'll check your stuff out again, I just wanna make sure that you've written something that wasn't written already. I don't need any...The Picasso Riddle....The Baron of Monte Carlo...you know, more rip-offs. I need a real, original book from you and if you can do that, I'll take a look. Just don't b.s. me anymore.

The weird part is, I really liked the book because, heck...I LOVED 100 Years Of Solitude!!! So I guess I like chocolate cupcakes because I like chocolate cake. One is the lesser form of the other. So, I'm not recommending this book. I want to expand my mind and learn new things, not go 400 pages repeating someone else's work. Now, I'll see the movie, starring Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close and Winona Ryder. Oh, and Antonio Banderas, somehow the only freakin' Hispanic actor in the whole darned thing.

Read Solitude instead. And feel free to waste time commenting about how wrong I am and how great your opinion is. Face facts - there's too much Solitude in this thing. Too much.

This book is amazing in the way that it spins together politics and love stories, and the way it foreshadows its own plot in sudden heartwrenching flashes. Working towards the coup (Pinochet?), the cold, declarative statements of what will happen (without the characters' knowing it ahead of time, in the present of the narrative) become like a traumatized person's remembering-and-repressing of the past.

I think that this explains, in part, Allende's decision to use Esteban Trueba's first-person voice at certain points. His character is what I find most intelligent about this book. Allende shows his actions and his feelings in such fine shadings, and over an entire (long!) lifetime, that the reader is forced to experience his remorse, his evil, his love, his frustration with him.

This novel encourages the kind of sensitivity that dictatorships violently deny people... it approaches intangible concepts like freedom and love with a tender hand, expressing the passion of youth and the painful wisdom of age in one fluid voice.

I've been teaching one of Allende's short stories, "An Act of Vengeance," for a few semesters (my students consistently love it), and decided that I should finally read one of her novels. Many people compare her to Marquez, and 100 Years of Solitude is one of my favorite novels, but I think Allende manages to do it even better. (IMHO, The House of the Spirits has a much stronger and more powerful ending than 100 Years of Solitude.)

The characters are so real, and so well developed, and written with such compassion. It's amazing how Allende can write Trueba, the villain for most of the novel, with such empathy. The main characters, the three generations of women at the center are vivid, strong, but at times tragically flawed.

Allende deftly transforms this novel from being about one family to an entire country. She tells the history of Chile though the history of the Truebas, and the lessons, though heavily influenced by her own politics and family, emerge organically from the story rather than sounding like a lecture.

This book is very long, but a very quick read, and kept me sleepless for two nights as I stayed awake to finish it.

This is the only book I have read by Allende and I have to say I am a fan. I love her writing style. I love how strong and vibrant her characters are. I love how she is able to describe the scenes as if I were there. Great work of art. Thank you!

This is, far and away, one of the most beautiful and powerful books I've ever read. It is a sweeping portrait of Chile during a pivotal political era, but it is also a gorgeous look at the individual lives of those who both brought about and were swept along in the upheaval.

If you like historical fiction, tenderly drawn characters, tales of undying love, and ultimate redemption, this is the book for you.

Ever since I read this book in high school, it has been one of my favorites of all times. It is a book that is deep and personal in so many ways as it explores the lives of the Trueba family. This book is moving and has the same effect than Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One hundred years of Solitude. This is a great book and deserves the praises it has received. Isabel Allende is a gifted author, her other titles are just as good.

Chilean writer Isabel Allende is often compared to Marquez. 'The House of the Spirits' tells the Trueba family saga up to the period after the Chilean coup in 1973, in which Allende's own uncle was assassinated. Patriarchy here is represented by the conservative Esteban Trueba, spirit and intuition by his telepathic wife Clara. Allende's perspective is staunchly feminist and deeply romantic, qualities found with darker, more sinister tones in some novels. A wonder full book that must be read.

I really enjoyed House of Spirits while i was reading it. I thought it was one of the best books and had some of the most original and interesting characters I had ever encountered in a work of literature. After I finished reading it, I immediately read Eva Luna, another one of Isabelle Allende's book. If I had not read Eva Luna, House of Spirits would probably be one of my favorite books. However, I discovered that the characters in Eva Luna parallel the characters in House of Spirits so much, that I could not get past that while reading Eva Luna. In the end I was disgusted by both books. Although, I cannot forget how much I enjoyed reading House of Spirits. So, I only recommend reading House of Spirits if you are really fond of Isabelle Allende's characters or you have not yet read something by Isabelle Allende. I surmised that Isabelle Allende's characters are based on real people and to write about them is a form of personal exploration for her. I think it was interesting of her to do that in one novel, but annoying having to read about recycled characters.

I'm only 44 pages into this book right now (one chapter), but I can already write a 481 page (the length of this book) essay on why the author, Isabel Allende, did an incredibly poor job with this work. I've never read any of her other works, but they HAVE to be better than this dumpster fire, otherwise she's in the wrong line of work. I'm not going to get into the many reasons why this book is poorly sequenced, out of focus, and astonishingly random and confusing. I WILL however leave you my email ( [email protected] ) so IF you would like that full explanation I can give it to you there because I'm writing this on the fly and a full analysis of the book would take much more time, so that I can fully deliver an explanation without making myself seem like a crybaby teen who is pissy about his summer reading assignment. I'm no author, and I don't consider myself the most articulate person. But I can spot an overrated mess when I see one. No offense at all to Ms. Allende of course, I'm sure she's a nice lady.

Allende has a gift for writing, to say the least. She incorporates magical realism and politics into her story of romance and family. Each character has something that makes them special and not a page goes by where you don't read something beautiful, heartwrenching, passionate, or suspenseful. The narrator of the story, Esteban Trueba, is one of the most interesting characters from any book I have ever read. He is an absolute monster at times, yet you cannot help but root for him. I had to read this book for school and put it off until the night before. It got late and I decided I was just going to skim it (because I had to colormark and annotate). I couldn't do it. I tried and I kept getting sucked in. That is the mark of an excellent book.

House of the Spirits is a rare concoction of every passion known to man and woman. I was drawn to read this book in an unremarkable way, but it's story has made a profound effect on me. Each element of passion (power, family, love, race, and spirituality) flow both independantly as well as separately. The movie version should not be seen. This is a tale that must be told between the words and your mind.

This book was on my frequently banned or challenged list. Within a hundred or so pages I could see why. Overall I though it was a very good read, but at time it was just to much. There is quite a bit of violence, rape, and human cruelty. Although, I do understand that is fits in with the time period the book refers too. I loved Clara and thought the storyline lost some of its appeal when she died. But, the hardest thing about this book for me was the didn't seem to be a point to the story. I like to walk away from a book knowing I got the purpose for why the story was written. I didn't get that here.

Isabell Allende, is one and only. She draws Latin American societies at it's best. The House of Spirits summarizes just one of millions of Latin Families; but, captivates the essence of our struggles, believes and traditions. Sometimes you have to live in such societies to understand Allende, and if you do,as you read you'll see the development of a masterpiece and the flavor of perfection with it's conclution.

"The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende is a magically stunning book that deals with everything from love, to hate, to jealousy, and conveying every single human emotion all in one book. This was the second book of Allende's that I've read. Allende interweaves magic, fiction, and reality brilliantly.
The story is about Rosa the Beautiful, her sisters, mother, and her lover, Esteban Trueba. I won't so anything else so I won't spoil, but you NEED to read this book if you're a lover of fiction. It's a great introduction to Allende, and just a plain great read.

South American literature is so frequently forgotten in schools and the so-called 'mainstream' selections, but the wealth of imagery and vitality in this novel are truly astonishing.
Isabel Allende manages so effortlessly to move the reader through the densely populated world she creates with such an effortless mixture of fantasy and reality that you will be held by this great work of fiction.
Definitely a book that must be read, if only for the tremendous insight it provides to the Chilean culture.

This is the type of novel most writers can naught but aspire to craft! I was first introduced to this novel in my sophomore year in high school. (Far from what the misguided reviewer below posted, I did not protest, but devoured every bit of this breathtaking work of art!) I was instantly captured by the unique writing style as well as the remarkable story, and, needless to say, this book remains one of my favorite - if not my very favorite - novels I was assigned to read in high school.

The novel is written in three different narratives, told primarily in a documentary fashion, giving it the feel of an epic. The story follows three generations of women in the Trueba family, whose patriarch is the selfish, dictatorial, but ultimately understandable Esteban Trueba. By naming the female characters of the story specifically to symbolize purity ("Blanca" means "white" in Spanish, while "Clara," "Nivea," and "Alba" embody clarity, snow, and dawn respectively), Allende deliberately explores feminism, setting her story in a society which thrives on conservative, chauvinistic ideals. Which brings me to the violence. Yes, there are rape scenes; let me explain: Allende, at this point in the story, is trying to convey the absolute horror of Esteban Trueba's relations with peasant girls (a metaphor for the mistreatment of the working class by the upper class, and also the mistreatment of women by men, expanding on Allende's notions of feminism). The scenes are explicit because they are meant to be shocking and infuriating to a great degree. Far from making this novel "abhorrent," these scenes add emotional impact to the story.

Who will like this book:

-Readers who appreciate a well-worded, well-crafted classic

-Feminists

-Readers who don't mind being shocked or disturbed by certain scenes that are meant to be shocking and disturbing

-Readers who can empathize with profound, colorful, developed characters

-Readers who love broad, eventful plotlines and hidden meanings, metaphors, and symbolism

-Readers who don't mind a bit of magic realism!

-Readers who can appreciate a story which plays out like music

Who will not like this book:

-Readers who cannot stand feminism or are open chauvinists

-Readers who cannot tolerate shocking or explicit scenes

-Readers who are easily offended by the glorification of radical or liberal ideas (for the record, homosexuality is not glorified but stated as a simple, existing part of the world, much like the existence of concepts such as feminism, prejudice, and true love)

With exception to the above mentioned audience, I can guarantee that this book will keep its reader turning pages! A masterpiece!

I thought this book was one of the best I have read in a while. I loved the intense character development, and the surealist events that take place. Compared to OF LOVE AND SHADOWS by Isabel Allende, it tells more of a story over a longer period of time, and OF LOVE AND SHADOWS is much slower and more descriptive, almost artistic writing, in a sense. If you know of any books to recomend please email me.

The House of the Spirits is a great example of magical realism. The events that occur in the novel are obscure and often horrific to the point of being unbelievable, yet the novel raises such contemporary and realistic issues such as class struggles, political tension, and the power and powerless women, that the story has reasonable ground.
Characters in the novel are portrayed with both attractive and flawed attributes, revealing imperfect protagonists, and empathetic antagonists. Esteban for example is a haughty, temperamental, violent and rapist man, yet in his love for Alba the reader is forced to recognize his humanity and likable affection.
Overall the book is one full of mystery, and twists and turns that will keep the reader attentive and surprised at every new page.

Reading this book could be compared to biting into a very dense, elaborately decorated cake that takes decades to digest. Allende has a way with language and creates a very intricate, poetic story of epic proportions. It took me a while to really get into this book due to its general complexity. I had a hard time keeping track of all the characters (just how many guys named Pedro does a story need?) and often found the elements of magic realism to be too bizarre for my taste. However, these small complaints do not subtract from the overall elegance of Allende's masterpiece. If you have the time and patience to invest in reading a multi-generational epic, I would recommend "House of the Spirits."

We read this book as a part of the International
Baccalureate program (high school) and if there's
one consensus we have had as an entire class, it would
be that this is an A-grade book. You would be a fool
to miss it. This is not a story of the Trueba family or
the changing political conditions in south America --- this is quite simply a
story about life.

I read this book without the baggage of having read other Latin American writers, knowing anything about the History of Chile and not being too politically inclined. Hence I was able to thoroughly enjoy the novel over the 3 or 4 generations. I was abit distracted by the too many sexual scenes (voluntary or otherwise), the mystic powers of some of the characters and grotesque scenes like the death of Esteban's mother, the sick Amanda, the headless Nivea. My best character was Esteban Trueba as he does embody a reality for many people who struggle hard and sometimes end up not fulfilled...failed families, failed friendships, failed dreams and failed ideals. Deep inside he is not a very bad person and infact I dont think that Allende wanted to show him as a villain and at the end of the novel she gives him a befitting departure. I found Clara a bit too unreal and the change from the really dependent woman to a matriach developed too quickly. I will definetely re read the book and it has developed my thirst for other Latin American literature.

This book was on our required reading list last year, and I must say that this was the best book that I have ever HAD to read. The few graphic sexual scenes got it banned from our International Baccalaureate program, but they are not the heart of this book. Imagine being a silent spectator of life through three generations of the Trueba family. We start with Esteban, the patriarch, and his trials that he takes through life in order to start the beginning of his family's life. He falls in love with a girl who has an untimely death, but then years later, marries her future seeing younger sister Clara. Then we follow Blanca, Clara and Esteban's daughter, and her life as she falls in love with Pedro Tercero, her father's mortal enemy. Pedro is a natural leader and tries to get the farm workers to revolt, as other communists are doing, against their patrón. Pedro and Blanca then lead the story with their love child Blanca. Here the story ends. All in all, this is a great book, and I'd reccomend it to anyone. Our whole class loved this book, and I'm sure you will too.

Isabel Allende tells the story ( and really she is a storyteller) about the lives and loves and troubles of a family in a country in South America. Although the story is beautifully written (although the images sometimes are a little bit forced, but maybe that is just my dutch translation), I didn't feel it was a superb book. Here's why. The caracters are two-dimensional. Reading the book I could guess where the story was going and the main reason is that the caracters are to logical. In given her caracters limited space to move beyond the expected Isabel Allende isn't doing her story a favour and that's a real pity because otherwise I really enjoyed escaping in the book for a couple of hours. A good book that could have been great.

This is a very powerful novel that should be read by anyone with remote interest in South American history and culture, and Chile in particular. Yes, it is strangely similar to One Hundred Years of Solitude, but not so much that this should stop anyone from reading it. Allende has her own style, a simpler one, and generally her book is an easier read. It is not as powerful as 100 Years, yet it is a more realistic novel, and perhaps it is easier to identify with her characters. The fact that she is related to the great Chilean president Allende (killed himself in the coup that lead to Pinochet's dictatorship) makes her analysis particularly interesting, but there is no need to enjoy politics or history to appreciate her story of three generations of a family in South America, written with much of the magic realism style used so much by Marquez.

I normally would not have picked out this book but i'm really happy I did. It was on the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You die by Dr Boxall and I was trying to read some of the books he recommended. The House of the Spirits is a story of a family and it's few generations. In the background it shows some historic evens the way they influenced their lives. The story focuses mainly on the women of the family, showing their strength and inner as well as outer beuty. The book is very detailed and very captivating. I would definitely recommend it.

Excellent choice for a book club! This story is written very well. Allende's characterization is amazing. The reader will be drawn in right away. I was! Learn about Chile's recent history and how they have been shaped politically through the generational stories of a wealthy family. I thought I would not like this book because of the "spirits" and supernatural association, but these things are part of Clara's story and need to be told to understand her and other's with those beliefs in Chile.

Allende's The House of The Spirits is a family story that is at once both fantastical and incredibly realistic. Allende weaves the story of three generations of the Trueba family. By telling the story of three generations of women, Allende is able to explore and illustrate the effects and consequences of abuse and anger, and inequality and also of love and reconciliation. It is an incredibly gritty and moving story, but Allende uses the mystical and the paranormal to weave the whole thing back together, all the little stories into one story; that is at times sad, but ultimately hopeful. Allende weaves the story of the Trueba family into a book that's impossible to put down.

After reading "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende, I was physically and mentally moved by her extaordinary sense of feeling that compelled me to read it again. I couldn't put the book down; and honestly, I felt as if I were part of their interesting and magical family and its generations. Clara the Clairvoyant is an amazing character that draws you closer and closer waiting for what extraordinary thing she is going to do next. I am going to purchase the Hardcover copy of this book to keep forever, because it is by far the BEST BEST BEST book I have ever read. Isabel Allende should be proud of herself for having the capability to write something so close to the heart. To be realistic, words can't even describe the intensity of this novel. Recommend it to men and women of all ages, I guarantee they'll end up loving it!

One of the best books I have read. Being from a Latin America country, I didn't feel away from the story. La Casa de los Espiritus is a book that should be read not only by those who like to read but by everyone who keeps a civilized relation with other humans. This book should become part of those books students have to read to get a high school degree.

All in all, a pretty good book; the characters are multi-dimensional, descriptions beautiful (most of the time), and the style is engaging, with a mixture of reality and otherworldliness. The book is more of a family saga than anything else, chronicling the story of Clara, a spiritually vivid woman, and her family, from her parents to her grandchildren. Clara is probably the best character here: while she is multi-dimensional and very human, she is also a strong, movingly empathatic woman who touches all those around her. Her story is truly a remarkable one and the book mainly focuses on the viewpoint of Clara and the other strong women in her family.

I believe this alone is the strongest and most memorable part of the book and is the main reason why I like it. However, there's no denying that Allende's books are weird, and sometimes the weirdness borders on gruesome.This book is by no means an exception, and sometimes the graphic details repulsed me. In the first chapter, for example, there's an autopsy scene, which is disturbing enough since the person who's dead was Clara's angelic sister. It gets worse, though: the coroner's perverted assistant is attracted to the corpse and nearly makes love to it (lovely, isn't it?)

In another part, Allende vividly describes Clara's mother's gruesome death in a car accident, in which she was beheaded by the broken windshield. I might have been able to digest this if Clara (who was nine months pregnant and apparently not thinking clearly) hadn't taken it upon herself to literally go on a search for her mother's decapitated head. I came very close to vomiting when the head was found and described in much more detail than anyone would have deemed necessary.

If you are even slightly weak of stomach, I wouldn't recommend this. Of course, if you can overlook the stupidly gross parts and pay attention to the colorful characters, you'll probably enjoy it like I did, in the end. I was actually relieved that the movie was a little different; I'd even go so far as to recommend the movie above the book, since the movie "cut the bruises out of the banana", by lacking a few of the worst morbid scenes and wisely eliminating two boorish characters.

While Allende is a good writer, I really wish she, along with a few other Spanish writers, would have a little more respect for modesty and decency; a lot of Allende's characters are perverts who can't seem to stop themselves from taking advantage of others. For example, a guy performs an abortion on a woman and strips her naked once she falls unconscious; what the hel*?? This same little sicko delivers his own sister's baby..after stripping her naked too. What exactly is Allende's problem? Does she herself have some weird desire to take advantage of people? Woman, would you PLEASE use some darn decency in your mind?

This book has a great storyline, but while some of the characters are great, others are downright sickening. If you read this, you'll probably have to take it with a grain of salt (and a very good gag reflex). Or simply skip the book and watch the movie; it has all of the book's strong points and none of its weaknesses.

The House of Spirits is probably Allende's most famous and important book. In it, she chronicles the life of a family, as the patriarch grows from a child to an elder, with the world changing all around him while he tries to keep it the same. Through the lenses of the Trueba family, we follow the portion of Chilean history that eventually leads to the 1973 coup. Of course, the author is niece of Salvador Allende, the socialist president democratically elected that was removed from power and killed by Pinochet.
The book is based on clashes; old versus young, communists vs conservatives, landlords vs tenants. As the story unfolds, we view the extremist positions that each side takes: landlords attacking tenants, conservatives attacking communists, and vice versa. From the polarization of positions emerges a military dictatorship that no one wanted, but that was a product of the system setup by polarization.
In the end, the distinctions that originally separated young from old, conservatives from communists, are removed, as both sides realize the futility of their disputes in the face on an authoritarian regime.

In the House of the Spirits, Allende weaves a magical, and charming, story about a somewhat mystical family. The story is a generational tale, leading the reader down through the generations as different members of the family add different pieces to the story. A series of strange narrative sequences and styles keeps the reader on their toes, and Allende takes full advantage of the attention with meticulously described settings. As the book trails through tragedy and triumph, each character comes alive; and through it all, Allende describes an intricate plot containing rich motifs and themes of femininity and female power, plebians and patricians, and the comparison of civilization to primitive life.

I was glad I read this book. I now have a better understanding of why the mentality of the Chilean people is how it was or is. This book brought me back to the landscapes of my childhood summers in Chile and playing on the beach right bellow the Poet's house described in the book.
It's a shame I never read any of the Isabele Allende novels until now.

As one of many students who had to read it for the IB program, I have to say that it was a good read. (despite all the moaning and groaning that I got from some of my friens) There is a lot of foreshadowing, which unfortunately takes away some of the surprise in the book. But, despite my disappointment with "Paula", I like this book.

This book makes you sit and not want to get up untill you are done with the whole book. Isabele allende uses easy and fun language. She makes it easy for all ages to actually be able to understand it and get the main poins of the book. The book grabs your attention to the point that you want to get into the book and resolve some of the problems that the chracters are going through. You actually feel like you are part of the book, and at the same time like you are watching a movie because the language is very descriptive. This has actually been one of the most joyful, and amazing books that i have read through my life. I also thought that it was really funny how the book ended the way it started. "Barabes came to us by sea...."

This is perhaps Isabel Allende's most favored masterpiece. Although the story is a "good" story in and of it self, without knowing some of its' historical context you will be missing out. Knowing that Allende's uncle (Salvador Allende) is "the candidate", and that she knew Pablo Neruda "the poet" and that she is alluding to Agusto Pinochet in the 1973 Coup all make this book come to life. I urge all who are interested in Latin American history and literature to read this book and quickly review the history. It is amazing how much we can learn from one family, one family that teaches us the history, the patriarchal system, and the social context of an entire country in a very tumultous time. Disfrute! (Enjoy)

I'm a College student at Brooklyn College majoring in Spanish Literature, and as such, I just finished reading The House Of The Spirits. In my own words, this novel has nothing in common, nor it is a copy of A Hundred Years of Solitude, because Isabel Allende does not use the magical-realism technique that Marquez does; therefore, both novels are different, and both have a special place in Literature. The main factor in the novel, is the portance of a woman narrating a story (her own and that of her family) including, of course, the political aspect that's part of the novel. The narrative technique of Allende isn't the same as other writers, hers is more complex and more vivid; it is a writing technique that must be mastered very well.

Of all of Isabelle Allende's books that I have read, "The House of the Spirits" would be my nomination for "Best of Show." At first I was puzzled and even frustrated in trying to understand why and even how Esteban Trueba's reflections were appearing in random places. I soon came to realize what a clever way it was for Allende to tell the story. She employed a particularly useful construction tool to make a dark story shed some redemptive light.

This novel has one main message, and it goes to all lengths to send it, while making no concessions to the other side. That message is that socialism is good, capitalism is bad, and that's all there is to it. The only "conservative" who actually had a good side was Esteban Trueba. But guess what? Near the end, he begins helping the socialists. So much for the only conservative who wasn't entirely evil. There's another conservative who steps into the spotlight near the end... and he is essentially evil incarnate. He imprisons, rapes and brutally tortures the main character, never showing any mercy or emotion. Of course, all socialists are shown to be almost superhumanly kind and generous. All in all, I found this novel to be quite shallow, and the message to be too blunt.

AFTER HAVING READ EVA LUNA FROM ISABEL ALLENDE I STARTED READING THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS AND I ENJOYED IT SO MUCH! IT IS A MAGICAL STORY, EVERY PAGE YOU READ IS PURE PLEASURE! I CAN SAY THAT SINCE THE DAY I FINISHED READING THAT BOOK MY LIFE HAS CHANGED BECAUSE OF ALL THAT IT BROUGHT TO MY LIFE, AND TO MY DREAMS WICH HAVE BECOME NOW A MAGICAL EXPERIENCE! THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS IS A "DELICIOUS" BOOK!

What a fabulous book! I can not express how much I loved this book. The main reason I enjoyed it so much was that it presented South American culture in a very true light~ it never draws the line between fantasy and reality but rather meshes them together as is common in South American cultural views. The blending of the fantasy world with the real world was a breath of fresh air~ a good aside from all the rigid structure of most books. The characters of this book are also very fully developed~ by the end the reader feels as if she knows each one intimately. And the stories themselves of the characters are straightforward and honest. The book is definitely a must-read for anyone interested in fantasy or world cultures

"The House of the Sprits", written by Isabel Allende, is the extraordinary epic of the three generations of the Trueba family. The book focuses on the two main human problems: internal (personal) social relationship and the external political participation as a citizen. The story begins in an unnamed South American country during the middle of the 19th century which Esteban Trueba, a lonely, stern man, married Clara del Valle, a warm-hearted, hypersensitive girl. They built a family in a big house in the village with a practical, self-effacing daughter, Blanca and two sons, Nicolas and Jaime who were twins. A lot of tensions were caused between Esteban the father and his daughter since Blanca soon felt in love with the son of her father's foreman. However, with the birth of little cute Alba, Blanca's daughter, in the third generation, has brought a lot of happiness and warming to the family that lessen the tensions in the Trueba's home. And, as the politically roaring twentieth century beat on, the Trueba family became the actors of the victims of a series of tragedies under the Chilean military oppression.
Many striking events emotionally attacked the heart of the readers. One of the most important events was the moment where Esteban found out that his daughter was having a relationship with the son of his worker. He slapped and beat Blanca terribly as if he wanted to kill her. Clara (the mother) tried to stop the violence, but he paid attention to nothing but the horrible beating and intolerable reviling. Esteban called his daughter a malicious woman for having relationship with a lower-class man. Unable to control her temper, Clara shouted aloud: "What about you who raped the peasant women!" The words stroke Esteban and he slapped her. Esteban was a crucial patron in the village that no one dares to say a word against him. He used his power to rape the peasant women in the village. Clara knew this but she never protest against him. She kept everything inside since a woman during that time couldn't interfere with her husband outside social relationship and suddenly she burst out everything at this day. From this short scene, we can see the author tried to present two issues: the division between lower and middle classes and the male-dominated world. During this time, the middle class treated the lower class as their servants. The middle class couldn't never be friends with the middle class; marriage between middle-class and lower-class was unacceptable to the society. The men were considered to be powerful creatures that dominate the world. Outside the community, they are politically leaders and business moneymakers. In the family, they lead the family. The women are weak, fragile creatures who were just born to serve the men and his children.
"The House of the Spirits" compresses the whole complex society in a little book. Isabel Allende introduced colorful characters that represented typical people in the society. Each member in the Trueba family was assigned a different personal life to live on. Esteban Trueba, the leader of the family, strong and arrogant on the outside, struggled with loneliness deep inside his heart that he never willing to show it. He was jealous to see his wife, Clara, expressed her warming caring and tender loving toward the children, the neighbors, and the workers, but always being cold toward him. His children were never willing to share their feelings with him and always gave him their cold fearful eyes whenever they have to face him. Clara, on the other hand, was a beloved mother and grandmother, but a struggled wife who found her heart compelled every time she has to confront him. She hated his hateful attitude toward the farmers, his immoral abuse of the peasant women, and his intolerable neglect of caring and support toward his own children. She repressed his actions, but she pushed all her unbearable feelings to the bottom of her heart because she couldn't protest against him. For Blanca, she faced hardship under the classism society. She was kicked out of the house for having a relationship with a lower-class man. Her lover has to flee to avoid the killing her father. Each member in the Trueba family struggled through the unbreakable solid walls of rules of the society. Why should people formulate rules to make people turning themselves against each other? Did they feel happy anyway? Isabel Allende also presented a broader theme in which she showed the evilness and cruelest of human. I love the last one-third of the book in which Isabel Allende described a horrified world during the Chilean civil war with violence, mass murder, genocides, and concentration camps. Alba and Jaime were the victims of the civil war. Under the military oppression, they suffered shocking violence in the concentration camps.
From "The House of the Spirits", we can see how human hurt human themselves, putting tragedies on each other. Why is that? As reading "The House of the Spirits, I question about how love and hate hurt people individually, why do the social classes cause the man turn against each other, what level of evilness is mankind committed to during a civil war? I really like the book and I rate a 5. As reading the "House of the Spirits", I can see the way the world work, how the rules in the society and the people around me have affected my life. I want to recommend everyone to read this book since it will teach us how to be a better person and how to live happily. I recommend people to read this book so we can have a better vision about our own actions, and from there we can create a better society in which everyone would be able to enjoy happiness and loving.

House of the Spirits, although filled with magic and fantasy, is a beautiful and poignant family saga, that gives insight into human nature and life itself. Esteban Trueba the male protagonist of the novel is a greatly flawed, and egotistical character, whom we are still able to feel sympathy for because of his passionate love for Claire. Claire meanwhile, provides much of the fantasy of the novel, yet she is as realistic as any character can get, emphasizing the fact that magic exists in life in many forms. This novel is also a tale of the politically turbulent Chile,which is the beautiful setting for this great novel and its characters, and provides great excitement and suspense to the plot. I definetly recommend this book, it will get you hooked an Allende!!

I have read this book over and over again. Each time I pick it up I am transported back with my friends. When I lose faith in the family unit I just pick up this book, and my confidence is restored. Love conquers all in this book and even lessons are learned through tragedy. This is a good book for both men and women.

I was surprised at the book. I thought at first that it would be just another boring book about family matters, but there's more. It is a book about politics, change, reconsiliation, and a family plot which doesn't turn into a soap opera. I had to read this book for the IB diploma, and usually books which are forced into students are thought of as boring. I think this is a great book and I'd recommend it to most people. But there are some irritating things, like too much foreshadowing (Allende tells you what will happen later in the book, sometimes ruining the surprise effect)and some repetitive lines. But in general, this is a good book, though not without flaws.

Isabel Allende's The House of The Spirits is a powerful novel, exploring a family through multiple generations. Allende uses suspended disbelief to place the reader in a world very different from his or her own, and yet Allende tells the story in such a way that every thing seems perfectly rational. She has a gift for story-telling, making Rosa's green hair seem beautiful or Clara's ability to move things with her mind perfectly natural. House of Spirits is a novel worth reading. It is entertaining, interesting but also intriguing, allowing you to think about things in a way you probably wouldn't have otherwise.

The use of magic realisms in this book make the book long and sometimes boring but it does make the story roll along and makes it intrested. Allende uses examples of Barrabas the magical dog the size of a horse and Rosa with her beautiful hair makes the book harder but more enjoyable. Not for everyone.

The interweaving of the real and unreal in this novel make for a fantastic read. I feel the wonder of a child reading an enormous book of fairy tales as I sink deeper and deeper into a world where folk wisdom, intuition, and spirituality prevail over science and logic. The feminist in me appreciates the matriarchy at the center of the novel and the Communist overtones as well. That this book is not included in our rigid Literary canon is testament to the fact that great literature is still overlooked - especially when the author is female and non-white. This novel can be read on many levels, which makes it all the more enjoyable for me.

"House of the Spirits" is a poignant, enterprising story that challenges the reader's concept of love, power and struggle. With the presence of the clairovayant nature of the book's most influential female characters, the issue of feminism and the differences in power sources are explored. However, many of the situations can be applied to anyone's life and compared to the surprising, sometimes difficult to swallow reactions of the characters, such as the magnitude of forgiveness. Even rather crude situations that are described reveal basic qualities of the human soul. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wishes to divulge themselves into a quality literary work that transports the reader into a world of tribulations that leads to an ultimate triumph.

Entertaining and great plot and characters, but not Allende's best. I preferred Luna for the spirituality and mysticism, and Daughters of Fortune for the characters and plot. Still, it's worth reading and I would recommend it. Just don't judge her by this book alone. If this is the only one of her books you've read, I highly recommend picking up Daughters of Fortune. That's a must-read-book.

Having read both editions of Isabel Allende's literary masterpiece THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS, it is safe to say that her gift for storytelling and infinite imagination has given birth to a true classic. Her adaptation of magic realism to the world and life of the Trueba family is only slightly surpassed by Gabriel Garcia Marquez ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. One grows to love or hate all the characters in the novel, which she gives in such intimate details that one begins to actually feel as if they have come to life. In short I highly recommend this novel, it will take you to a world so full of fantasy yet so close to reality

This text provides a number of angles from which to analyze, proving its worth. The Hosue of Spirits includes many enjoyable aspects. There's the interesting plot which is more or less a grand character development. The dynamism of each character (the tragic protagonist, Esteban Trueba, the carefree and enchanting Clara, the "savior" and symbol of womanhood, Alba) is astounding as the reader witnesses generations of the same Trueba family and their members. The theories expressed are also phenomenal. She writes of the Marxist struggle, the Freudian dreams, the feminist ideology, all wonderfully spread out on the page. Just do it. Read it I mean.

I thought this was a very good book, considering I had to read it for school. At first I thought I would not enjoy it because it was very wordy and there were a LOT of characters that seemed to have no real importance, but as I continued reading, I realized that it was a very well thought out and well written novel. I wish that I were fluent in spanish so that I could read the original version, but the english translation will have to suffice. I highly reccommend this book to anyone interested in Latin American politics and communisim, but also to anyone who is looking for a challenging and intriguing read.

Isabel Allende claimed the spirits of her grandparents guided her as she wrote The House of the Spirits, her first novel. This amazing story has it all: passion, fury, sensuality, magic, mystery, brutality, humor, psychic events and all the drama to keep a reader turning pages deep into the night. And the wonderful thing about Isabel is that her life has been as dramatic and exciting as her novels. She is a gifted author and fascinating person.

I'm 15 years and I've read a lot of books of Isabel Allende, but this book is really her best book.
Isabel Allende lets you get into a world so magical where you cannot discern between reality and magic... It's an amazing book.
Clara and Rosa are characters that will stay in your heart. This book is outstanding.
You will not be able to put it down.

This is an absolutely beautiful book by a gifted author. Allende captures the spirit of South American Magical realism perfectly, making the reader believe that a saltshaker can be moved with one's mind, that the ghosts of our loved ones protect us even after death, and most of all, that the human spirit is unbreakable. An inspiring book that touches your very soul. I rarely cry when I read, but this book had me in tears for the last 4 chapters. In my opinion, this is Allende's best work, one that I will read over and over again! and it's true, no matter how many times I read this book, it's always like the first time all over again!

This book is a sweeping epic, spanning decades in the history of an unnamed South American country, following the life of one family. While the story is gripping, the sheer volume may leave the reader feeling that episodes and characters throughout the book don't receive as much attention as one would want.

Although I am Chilean and I could have read this book in Spanish, I borrowed the English translation from the library. Wise decision: I really would have hated to buy it. The book is relatively easy to read because Allende is a good story-teller, and she must have taken Magic Realism 101. All the fantastic, impossible wonders we can find in a Garcia Marquez's novel, are found here, right down to the Marxist view of the universe with flat, unidimensional characters that are all good or all bad. The good ones are leftists, the bad ones are fascists. If one or two bad ones change in the end, it's because they have suffered and find themselves closer to the left, therefore now they are good. The simplistic description of Chilean history in the 20th Century will capture the imagination of those who don't know Chilean history, and will satisfy those who, politically, agree with Allende regarding the basic goodness of Socialism. The author has done a superb job at convincing readers that her fictionalized account of decades in the life of my country is an accurate one: plenty of people have told me that most -or all- of what they know about Chile comes from this book. No wonder they can't understand Chilean reality. Even if you do away with all the Garcia Marquez-inspired sections (quite a lot), the end result is still a nasty message that tells us that Chile would have been happy with Socialism, and that only Yankee-imperialists and their friends in Chile killed that wonderful hope for my country. Incredibly enough, there are many people who agree with such a message. Isabel Allende has written that Chile was on its way to Paradise when the bad guys showed up. She is either blind to the reality of Socialist countries and the disasters that all Socialist experiments caused in every country they ruled, or she knows perfectly well that reality, but has managed to apply doublethink in a truly clever example of mental gymnastics. The one star her book gets from me is because she really can tell a story. But her political message is poisonous.

This is one of Isabel Allende's earliest works, but the absolute best book she has written to date and that she will probably ever write. It is magical and mystical, romantic and poignant, and belongs on every bookshelf. It is because of this book that I now have a soft spot for magical realism. You won't regret embarking on Clara's journey, and witnessing the entire story of a country unfold, through bloodshed and struggle, like the pages of this beautiful book.

I read the book for English class, and it's one of many in whose plot I've cared about. But the thing that sets this book apart is definitely the symbolism. It's awesome how the house of prostitution represents the society as a whole, and Esteban's attempt to deal with society is a problem that we've all had at some point (especially us males). Isabel Allende does an impressive job with this book through the magic realism of Clara and of Alba. Just when you think the book can't get any more weird, Allende manages to surprise you. Anyway, this book is great and I would recommend it to anyone.

This book captivates with its lyrical language, its realistic multifaceted characaters and its not-forced positive message. Not even the frequent switches of POV detract from it and the "storytelling" style adds a lot of charm.

If you really want to know and understand why latinamericans are the way we are, you've got to read this extraordinary book. I read it about 10 years ago...maybe more. But it is still around in my memory, just as the characters, gosts and the magic involved in our reality.

The book The House of Spirits has an amazing ability to keep you sitting or laying down at your favorite spot in the house. The characters in the book have a tremondus amount of power and captivate you. You can see them and picture them in your mind from the writing and the descriptions. Clara gives an amazing empowerment to women and keeps you questioning reality while Esteban Trueba brings out emotions of pity and anger while reading the book. This book is not a "Chic" book; anyone can enjoy seating down to read The House of Spirits because it mesmerizing.

This is a great book. Definitely for those who are into emotional stories. You get tears at the romances that could never be. However, has anybody noticed that Alba, Blanca's child, spent her childhood reading at the age of five, and could read her Uncle Marco's book? Then she grows up and becomes close to her grandmother. Her grandmother(Clara) tells Alba the stories that Clara had learned from Uncle Marco's book. Pretty ironic isn't it? Only read the book one time and it hit me. For those new readers, see if you can spot it.

I recently read this book for the second time and was reminded how much I loved it. I became part of the world of the Truebas, a world where the unexpected is commonplace and the weird is normal. It provoked so much thought about my own life and why I did the things I do, and I caused me to examine the people around me and how I relate to them. I recommend this book to anyone, I think you would have to be dead to not be touched by this beautiful story. I will have to read it again each year and I doubt I will ever tire of the rich and delightful characters.

I never felt fully engaged with the characters. I only finished the book because I somehow hoped that there would be some great ephifany at the end that would tie it all together and save it for me, but I was disappointed.

The House of the Spirits is an interesting yet masterful tale, interwoven with magic and intrigue. The book covers some interesting grounds with magic and psychics as well as the power of women. The book was surprisingly gruesome, but seemed very real. Also, the book takes place over the course of 4 generations so there are many different characters that keep your attention with their various personalities. It was tough for me to get into, but once I did it was a wonderful journey.

the characters in the book are so vivid. the authors has done a excellent job to keep the story going keeping you in suspense and keep wanting to know what happen to the characters.

i love books that make me think what i should do with my life. this is one of them.

+AH4-The book the house of spirits was an awesome book. It wasextrememly descriptive and showed so many family values throughoutstruggles the Trueba family went through.It really showed every character in full blown detail and the author showed everyone's emotions perfectly. Allende Created characters that battled through everything such as love and hate.She made it so that all of the characters would help eachother through everything.I recommend this book for anyone who likes adventure and+AH4-+AH4- romance.+AH4-

I could not put this book down. I was drawn into the Trueba family and had to know the outcome of Clara and her children and grandchildren. I was disturbed by the images and situations described by Allende, but they made me think about the present political situation in Central and South America. This book has made me want to learn more about our neighbors to the south.

The House of the Spirits is a terrific book. I recently read it for my high school historical literature class, and I was suprised as to how much I enjoyed it. I especially found the book great because it had the ability to make me view my own life a bit differently as well as educating myself on a new culture, I was previously unaware of. Isabel Allende did an excellent job write the novel, in the sense that every word helped describe the mood and feeling the book carried, I would recommend this to all types of readers.

I found Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits to be a colorful depiction of a not-so-typical family in a place that strongly resembles but is not referred to as Chile. Allende's entertaining inclusion of magical realism weaves a colorful web that both capture's the reader's attetion and proves thematically significant. I especially applaud Allende in her usage of feminism and Marxism as side-plots. They tickle the reader's fancy without becoming to overbearing. Overall I found this book to be a racing car through the fantasy of the mind.

I just wanted to clarify that the United States CIA was behind the death of President Salvador Allende and that he did not commit suicide. He was murdered. He was also democratically elected. As a result of US involvement, the Coup was successful and is why Pinochet was able to assume power and commit mass murders from 1973 until 1990. Thanks to the United States government and military, millions of people died at the hands of the ruthless Pinochet. When the book ends, it is Pinochet who is beginning his reign of terror that would later be described by historians as the Dirty War. While Pinochet is responsible for his actions, the United States is also responsible for this by facilitating the process of the Coup and subsequently supporting and recognizing the dictatorship as the official government of Chile. Based on this and many other instances of US intervention, I am ashamed to be a citizen of the United States.

Love the book and would recommend it to anyone. Not as good as the Daughter of Fortune book, because it does get a little stale in middle with the descriptions of each generation character, but definitly worth the read. I can't wait to compare it to the movie.

I read this book because it was on a list of the 150 best books of the century picked in a poll run by Library Journal. and I have now read 115 of the 150. This one was a real struggle to get thru. I simply could not get interested in the grotesque and weird characters in this book. I kept hoping the book would get better but I cared as little about the chracters on the last page as when I started. This book was a complete waste for me.

This book is amazing, I read it because I liked the movie, and I am a student of Latin American history, politics and culture. The book is (as usual) much better than the movie, and it amazingly captures a tumultuous and awful time in Latin American history through the experiences of one family. The characters are so alive and multi-dimensional that you really care about them. It is similar in style to Garcia Marquez (who I also love!) I recomend it to everyone!

I had heard great things about this book all through high school and college. It was required reading in several classes (none that I took) so I decided to finally read it when I had the time after graduation. I was thoroughly disappointed. The story line was fine, intricate with twists but the foreshadowing was a joke. The scene I remember most distinctly is when the young wealthy girl meets the poor boy for the first time at the country home. They run away to play together and are found after an extensive search lying naked asleep under the living room table. Anyone who has any kind of reading background knows when two kids from very different backgrounds meet and then up laying naked together are bound to end up together once they come of age. It's set up to create as much tension as possible in any novel and makes the most sense. Allende feels it neccessary however to state this explicitly. She tells the reader that this scence will repeat itself. The reader should not need to be told that and it would make most readers feel like they were though stupid by the author. Good books let the reader figure out what is going to happen themselves. That's what keeps the reader reading to prove that they are correct (or, even better, to be disproved). House of Spirits lacks this quality completly and shoud not be read by the person who has read even just a couple other good novels.

I brought this book home certain that I was going to fall in love with it. I didn't.
I found the characters difficult to like. I found the events from one generation to the next to be repetitive. I was annoyed by the right-left politics of the book. At the end, I found myself liking Esteban better than Alba.
I wish I bought something else.

I read this book 8 years ago while in high school for extra credit. Ever since then this book has been my favorite of all time. Isabel Allende is a magical author who weaves an absolutley beautiful and magical story throughout 3 generations. I would be amazed to find someone who was not under this books spell.

Even though "The House of the Spirits" was an easy read, it was quite exhausting to read because of the many emotions that I felt while reading it. Allende is a great writer who uses words to make the reader feel as the characters in the book feel. Their pain becomes your pain and their joy becomes your joy. She mixed magical realism with her political ideals into a poignant story about a family. Not many authors can do that.

The story is worth telling, but the style is awkward. Allende is much too enamored with her characters for the reader to take them seriously. The House of the Spirits is a good read for school aged or (very) occasional adult readers. It is certainly not for anyone who has read (and liked) any Gabriel Garcia Marquez books. Allende's grip on magical realism is tenuous. When employed correctly, magical realism has an otherworldly effect on the reader: it forces the reader out of his/her reality and thrusts him/her into the depths of the tale. Everything else becomes irrelevant and the reader is completely engrossed. Bumpy transitions and insipid descriptions prevent Allende from casting a magical spell. This is unfortunate. Allende seems to have great vision for the story in her mind, but she is unable to project it on paper.

This book is a very good read. I enjoyed it from start to finish. I have just one problem with it. It follows the basic line of 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez only varied with twists that could have been taken from a "What modern feminine Latin authors need to succeed" brochure. The book offers nothing new for the development of Latin Identity. If you are looking for an entertaining, well-written book this book will work well. If you would like to explore why many claim that Latin America is producing some of the the most innovative and thought provoking works of our times, look to Márquez, Borges or Cortázar and others.

I thought that Isabel Allende's book The House of Spirits was a pretty good book to read. Im not a fan of reading much, but when I was given the assignment of reading this novel by my english teacher, I couldn't stop reading it . It's the story of a woman with supernatural powers, her male tart of a husband, and their stuggles with each other, their daughter, sister in law, and political issues. I really thought that this novel was worth reading and maybe you will enjoy it too!

Loved the character development. I almost felt like I knew Clara and while it took a great strain on my imagination, I also manage to conjure up Rosa in my mind. I loved that the characters all seemed to have a distinct difference about them and were not bunched up into the same monotonous "dark, sensual and strikingly beautiful" depictions of so many novels today.
For example, Clara's missing front teeth, or Amanda's overdone make up. It really gave life and realism to the characters.
Bravo.

I was assigned to read "The House of the Spirits" for my Honors English Class. From the moment I started reading the book, I fell in love with it. I think that it was so well written and that everything fits together like a complete puzzle. It is full of excitement and suspense. All the characters are so well developed. You can actually picture and feel the things that they are sensing. I completely recommend this book. It is a wonderful book to read when you have some time to dedicate yourself. Five Stars!!!!!!!!!!

I thought that this book was wonderfully written, and that the plot was also fantastic. The only complaint I would have is that the political mumbo-jumbo got in the way of the plot which I found interesting. In this book there are really 2 stories. One of the Trueba family, and another of politics. The first includes the lives of 3 generations of daughters, each with a seperate identity, yet still being unified by their history together. I would recommend this book mainly to women, as it is based on 3 women's lives.

If you have not read this book, you are missing out. This is an edge of your seat thriller that makes you continue reading and reading and reading! Allende truly made a masterpiece. The characters and the events portrayed are truly magnificent and well written. From beggining to end there is non-stop action,thrills and gasps. You'll find yourself attached to the book. Awesome, awesome book dont want to give the story away, but trust me this is a book worth reading.

Ok. I've finally read this. After years of hearing about the hype of this, I've done it. Was it worth it? Does it live up to the sensationalism? The answer is a resounding "no."
I'll put it this way...if you are an heir to the Che, Fidel, Mao, Lenin, or Marx family, you'll enjoy this book immensely. For, as hopefully others have noticed, this is nothing more than quasi-fictionalized socialist/leftist propaganda. Apparently, the west is bad and capitalism and all its ideals are inherently evil. Yes, it's to each according to his needs, from each according to his ability in this book. And Ms. Allende's message reads loud and clear.
I find it (somewhat) amazing that more people haven't noticed this. It is a modern day "Manifesto" disguised as a some epic, dramatic tale. Perhaps it is epic and dramatic, but each and every element of the tale--(if one pays attention to details, or are details just another opiate of the masses? Ms. Allende, I'm looking in your direction)---goes to establishing or demonstrating some evil of capitalism and the west, and glorifies all that is socialist.
Fine if that's your cup of tea. More power to you and your pathetic political ideals. Its success rate has been clearly established....as has capitalism's. But my point is this...don't confuse the issue as to what this book is truly about or truly espouses. Call it for what it is. Don't hide behind some faux b-s drama or deny the fact. At least you'd deserve some degree of respect to simply come out and say what you believe.

I think that Isabel Allende's The House of Spirits is a great book to read. The story has a little bit of everything in it to make the reader want to go back and keep reading. One theory that is throughout the novel is the constant struggle between Women and Society. All the women in the story are continuously struggling with an outside predicament that enables them to be able to speak freely and have the freedoms we have today. I personally have enjoyed reading the novel. READ IT...IT'S A GOOD NOVEL!!

This is definetely one of the best books I have ever read. I, myself, am from Chile, and was around in the 1970s when everything mentioned n the book happened. What Allende portrays in this book is completely true. While I was reading this book I felt as if I was being transported back to the place I grew up in. I loved the supernatural aspects of this book, as well as her extremely descriptive writing style.

The House of the Spirits was a wonderful and exciting novelwith many different perspectives about the latin culture in Chile.The character development was unbelievable. It felt like you really knew who Allende was talking about. You can have a completely mental picture of the characters and setting. If anyone has not read this book, I highly recommend it.

This was an amazing book. It shows ultimate emotions anddescribes them perfectly. Allende's style of writing is verydescriptive and graphic when it needs to be. She has created unforgetable characters that you both love and hate and the story stirs up huge emotions in the reader while telling an awesome story. This is the best novel I have ever read. If there is a book that would deserve a 6 star rating, this would be it.

The feminine magic element of the book is completely essential to the flavor and wonder of this novel.
I rented a movie but it totally leaves that out(or what was included made it seem creepy or scary), which made me wonder how they could even make a film of the same title
because that was what it was all about..passing that magic through the generations of women.
Anyhow the book is so beautiful and affirming of intuition and survival. Too much to say about this book...the peasant medicine wisdom of indegenous ..the oppression..the karma of the Americas north and south..class race the myth of superiority...just nails it..captures this truth.

The House of Spirits is an amazing novel about Esteban Trueba and Clara the clairvoyant. The story spans 75 years with hardships that the two face in society. This book makes you want to keep on reading and not put it down. With all of the suspense and drama, why wouldn't you! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read and one that wants to read about changes between two totally different people.

Once you read The House of The Spirits your mind will be blown away. This novel is one of those novels that you can put down once you've picked it up!! It keeps you on the edge of your seat as if you were on a roller coaster at Universal. It comes with the package, exciting characters, mind-blowing details and a story line that covers 75 years of life. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a novel about how life changes with problems.

I really love this Isabel Allende's inspirational book "The House of The Spirits". It is the story of young, proud men and women who suffer and triumph in many ways. When I started reading this book I could not stop I felt as if I were living it out with the charachters because of the persuasive language. It is a magical tale with force, passion, charm. It is unforgetable tale that anyone would love to read! Enjoy!

I think this book is great! Allende is a wonderful writer, and I think everyone should read this book if they get the chance. The story is really good, and sometimes its really hard to put down. Although the story and characters are very strange at times, I always want to see whats going to happen next. I would definitely recomend this book to anyone who is looking for a good beek to read.

Although many friends had told me the wonders of this book I was still wary of reading something that was promised to be so powerful. And nothing could have prepared me for this novel. It was the wonderous story, set against a gorgeous background, of one of the most interesting, yet corrupt families that I have ever encoutered. A must on any reading list!

The House of the Spirits was a beautiful book about a young lady with mysterious "powers," and no one understands her. It takes a lot of wierd unexpected twists and it keeps you on your feet. If i had one word to describe this book it would be, unbelievable.
It's a very strange story and certain things could never happen in real life, but yet it's all believable.

In reading the House of the Spirits, I had to appreciate how the past relates to the future in family matters. This book was magical and an wonderful read. A fathers reactions to his wife and daughter and how it influences their futures was really an amazing read. Typical of Allende and also other Spanish writers is the magical touches (ghosts, spirits,etc.) but such an escape!

This is one of the most whimsical, charming and artful stories i've read in a while. Allende transports you through time, seeing and feeling through each of her characters, as if you were there. The cadence is rhythmic and melodic-- flowing through the words, which are meticulously and richly detailed.

Absolutely one of the best novels! The unforgettable Trueba family and Allende's brilliant use of magical realism makes this a timeless tale of love and war. AN ABSOLUTE MUST READ! I get tingles down my spine reading all of these other reviews because it reminds me of Allende's magic! Do yourself a favor and delve into this literary masterpiece!

I've read other books by this author which I loved. However I could not get into this one no matter how hard I tried. It didn't hold my interest; found it mostly boring and I couldn't really get into the characters. I think I got through about 3/4 of it, then put it down for good.

I am afraid that I must register another opinion. I am aware that I read a book that would be considered "art". I am aware that I read a book that attempted to personalize the recent history of a very turbulent country (Chile). Initially I thought of it as something like a popup book that you opened to see many wonders, then closed it and put it back on the shelf with no particular effect on the reader. Lately I have begun to think of it as a Latin American soap opera. I can almost watch it in my mind, the characters running in and out, panting with lust, pantomiming when they were in their silent period, whipping peons, riding horses, flying balloons, crashing cars, having sex in marriage and out, being born, dying, arguing with everyone, pots flying, people flying, curses given, etc. I know two movies, at least, were attempted from this material. I think a conventional Spanish Language Soap Opera would be a more appropriate medium. Not my cup of tea.

I was somewhat disappointed with Allende's 'The House of Spirits'. Everything about the book seemed to evoke a sense of great things will come from this writer, but unfortunately I was left wanting. So much untapped potential was made of the characters and yet after reading a while in to the book I realised that this is as far as Allende is going to take them. Why? I was left wondering. This is the first book I've read by this author but I'm not going to let it put me off reading more of her stuff. Perhaps my expectations of the author were too great but I don't think so some how.

Isabel Allende's "The House of the Spirits" is quite different than previous books I have read. As the book went on, it sort of grew on me although I'm not a typical fan of this type of Romantic/Feminine Novel. Allende's brilliance and technique for writing this novel gives the reader a well written piece that could be inspiring to some women today. Great read and recommended!

House of spirits is a great book. It shows the value of haveing a family. The book is very descriptive and easy to understand. My favorite part of the book is that their is many narrators in the story which makes you wonder who the narrator is at that time. I would recomend this book to anyone, House of Spirits is one of the best books I have ever read.

If you liked the Marquez's "100 Years of Solitude", you'll definitely like "The House of Spirits". If you haven't, probably read the Marquez's book first. Both books are beautiful (and very similar while being quite different), the Allende's one is closer to the (cruel) reality, and so a bit less philosophic.

I really enjoy this book. It was required for my summer reading, but I'm glad it was. Isabel Allende is a marvellous author and her use of magical realism is wonderful. This book is hard to put down once you start reading! The development of her characters is amzaing. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good novel.

Ellende's use of magical realism makes this book a unique window through which one can learn about a certain period of Chillean history. Although the book is a joy to read on the whole, the traslation to English was lacking at times. In stead, I suggest a similar but much more brilliant work: Garcia's One hundred Years of Solitude.

I bought this book because of a controversy of it being used for an honors class in a local high school. Yes there were issues but the book opened my eyes to something that everyone should be aware of.

Isabel Allende has created an intriguing book tracking the rise and fall of the Trueba family. She has mixed family crisis in with political crisis that have racked the land. The strong female members in this story hold the family together while the rest of the country is being torn apart and make this book truly worth reading.

The House of Spirits is a well written book that gave you alook at the world in a different light. It actually discuses the stateof certain countries in the world. It was well writen but somewhat long. Isabella does a wonderful job at keeping the reader intrigued.

This is, without a doubt, one of my alltime favorite books. Allende's writing style is simple, yet unique, and her characterization is flawless. The plot is very convoluted but the emotions the characters feel are so real and extraordinary you will come away from this reading changed forever.

From a Marxist point of view, the House of the Spirits is absolutely stock-full of social conflict. It outlines both the struggle of the underclass and the concervative nature of those that have material wealth. The culmination of this conflict is absolutely remarkable. A must read!

Since this book signifies what all Latin American countries have gone through it prejects it's people and the strength they get through it. The book gives you an idea that it could be Chile, yet it felt like Peru me being from there.

I love this book, but honestly, WHY IS THIS NOT AVAILABLE ON THE KINDLE APP!! The only one available was the original Spanish version, which I can't read. Seriously, they had the freakin' STUDY GUIDES, but not the actual book? What is this!?

A friend suggested I read this book before leaving for Chile, where the story takes place. While the story is okay, despite the supernatural aspects, the accuracy is off. Allende's very socialist views are prominent throughout the story, leaving some misinformation for the reader. To really find out what went on during this important time during Chilean period, read an unbiased book of this history. All in all, not a horrible story, but a bad perception.

I think that this book was a different look at a different culture. It taught you how life was back then and at the same time it it kept your interest by putting a love story in with it. I would recomend this book to anyone in high school or older because of some graphic parts.

I had to read this book for the IB program and I ended up loving it. It tells o fhow interconnected nature that family possessed. It tells of the trials adn tribulations of the Trueba family. Never boring an very touching.

I found this book to be an easy / fun book to read. The main character wanted to change her life - was not quite sure how to accomplish that- but set out in unchartered waters to accomplish her goal. Highly recommend this book.

This was one of ther most greatest, goodest, best books I everread. I'm 7 years old and this has oppened my eyes to a whole new viewon life. My whole 1st greade found the more grpfic parts slightly in the grey zone, but amazing... byyyyyyyyyy, Josh Leach END

I thought that the story was quite entertaining. Allende provided a great vivid description of South America. I thought that at points the mystical part of the book went overboard, however I do believe that over all it was a great story. I highly recommend it.

I love Allende's writing, though there are times it's hard to follow, and "The House of the Spirits" does seem to drag a little in place, but it's a beautiful story, rich in character and alive in scenery. You learn to love the women, hate yet also love the patron, and miss them when the book has ended.

I was required to read this book for my english class, and personally, I did not like it. Originally, I thought that the book was going to be about a house full of spirits, but before I read the novel, my teacher explained that it is a novel about class struggle and politics in Chile. However, after reading the book I have come to disagree. The book is really a flash back into the lives of its characters and is full of their personal stories and adventures. To me, these stories due to their graphic nature overshadow the class issues and the politics. It is not that they are not apparent, but that they are overshadowed by the gruesome acts of rape and other digusting things that should have been left out of the book. Also, to me the book becomes very monotonous. At certain parts I felt like the book was going to end, and yet I still had more than 100 pages to go. In the end I find that the rape and violence in this book overshadow its original purpose and thus degrade its value.

wonderfully written fantastical but believable on every level. Truly identifies and pulls at every human emotion and tells a fabulous story. Fast paced and full of twists and turns this plot is one of a kind. Highly recommended

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 months between chapters, then feel guilty, resolve I'm going to finish it this time (no, really), pick it up, and read another chapter. At which point I'll need to set it down again to take a break, for Allende is second only to Doris Lessing when it comes to writing long, drawn-out chapters where nothing at all occurs. And another six to eight months will pass...

So I'm breaking the cycle. I tried again tonight, and I realized that this whole time, I haven't cared about a single character in this book. Sure, they're all relatively well-written, but it's not enough to be well-written if they never actually get around to doing anything except pontificating. And that, well, they do a lot of that. I'm assuming this book doesn't have a plot; if you haven't started your plot a third of the way into the book, you need to go back and do a few more writing workshops.

I have had many people, when I have mentioned in the past that I was trying to get through this dog, positively gush at me about how wonderful a book it is and how much they learned from it. I assume what they learned was the patience of the grave. I, unfortunately, failed that lesson. There are far too many other books in the world for me to waste any more time on this one. (zero)

I thought this book was truly an escape from real life, and I do not mean this positively. I do not understand what goes through the minds of people to write like this. The entire book is very unrealistic and cynical of life.

Even though I must that this novel at first captivated me and seemded quite interesting, the plot became redundant thus making the book too long. I think Allende would have done a better job had she shortended up her story.

Do not understand why this was a best seller. Perhaps something might have been lost in the translation: my interest to continue past the third chapter. Finished it then left it in auto repair waiting area.

This was probably one of the worst books I have read thus far in my existence. Wow. There was ABSOLUTELY NO PLOT. Many of the people I collaborated with while reading this book said, "well life is a plot, isn't it?" NO IT'S NOT. LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE. Why does anyone need to waste their time with this travesty of a story? Magical realism is the worst writing style I can imagine. One of the main principles of magical realism is that time is nothing. But I doubt you would say that as in the time that you can read this book, which is quite a while considering there is random rambling for around 400 pages, you could have done every chore imaginable that you need done in your house, and saved the world three times. Either something was lost in translation from spanish to english, or this was the most poorly written book in the history of fiction...or anything.

I had to read this book for IB english as a part of our program. The book started out very interesting with dynamic characters whom I had never read any close to. (Meaning the characters were unique). The problem is THEY NEVER CHANGED. There was no character development or any lessons learned (Except on the VERY last page). The worst part is, characters just died. Their deaths would just stick ou like a sore thumb, as if allende were trying to get rid of old characters to make room for new ones. Another problem: TOO MANY CHARACTERS TO KEEP TRACK OF. There were WAAAY more characters in this novel than what I deemed "necessary" most held no link to the plot at all (also: NO PLOT).
I felt as if this book was a biography of a family that had been fictionalized.
Needless to say: Awful book that only intellectuals would enjoy to read.

I judge this smarmy mash to be about 75% Garcia Marquez and 25% Jorge Amado.

Summary-

Man bad. Man dumb. Man favorite profession- likable but stupid father, unlikable rapist fascist father, parasite, pedophile, one dimensional campasino, crazed priest...

Woman good. Woman smart. Woman nurturing. Woman magical, deep, loving, tolerant, ...ad nauseam.

Subplot-

Capitalism evil.

Socialism good.

The only thing more depressing than contemplating the popularity of this novel is thinking about all the money Allende made from this.

My son had to read this book for AP English and after reading it you can see why the youth are so screwed up. It you like reading books bashing Catholicism, applauding homosexuality while being pepper with profanity throughout than this book is for you. If that is not your cup of tea there are hundred of better stories to be read and shared than this one. Heck just read Dickens and you will put your kids miles ahead.

"Why?" was the central question of my reaction to this book.

Ms. Allende:
Why do none of your characters develop, with the exception of Esteban Trueba becoming more Socialist?
Why is the formula of this book: Good - women, socialism ; Bad - men, capitalism
Why did you go into gruesome detail in every death, rape, abortion, act of pedophilia, and sex scene?
Why did you make a book with such black-and-white standards? All socialists are great people, and when something goes wrong with them, it's glossed over meaninglessly, while the Capitalists have every skeleton dragged out of their closet.
Why did you include the magic? What did that have to do with anything? Oh, good, she has telekinesis and ghosts and crap. SO FREAKING WHAT?

This book is a sham, pure and simple. It pretends to be some epic tale about this family [read: series of women] that overcomes adversity in order to do the right thing for everyone, when in reality, it is simply socialist and feminist propaganda.

I'm a girl. I'm as much for female empowerment as the next sane human. But EVERY FREAKING GIRL IS SOME HEROINE! I mean, the freaking hooker is just a wanna-be businesswoman!

The part that made me realize that I hated this book was when Esteban wanted to make Clara talk to him, so he was going to go rape some more worker girls. Except, of course, he didn't have the strength to pull them onto his horse, much less rip their clothes off and hold them down. I honestly didn't know how to react. "Sorry dude"? "Good for those girls"?

Oh, and I refuse to believe that ANYONE can punch someone else with their bare fist once and knock out multiple front teeth. I just don't.

If you said, "TL;DR" - Terrible book. Fancy family tree. Didn't care about any of the characters. Socialist, feminist. Don't recommend it. If you have to read it for school, please protest.

I judge this smarmy mash to be a stylistic rip off of about 75% Garcia Marquez and 25% Jorge Amado.

Summary-

Man bad. Man dumb. Man favorite profession- likable but stupid father, unlikable rapist fascist father, parasite, pedophile, one dimensional campasino, crazed priest....

Woman good. Woman smart. Woman nurturing. Woman magical, deep, loving, tolerant, ....ad nauseam.

Subplot-

Capitalism evil.

Socialism good.

The only thing more depressing than contemplating the popularity of this novel is thinking about all the money Allende made from this.

This book is:

A) Poorly written

B) Poorly Translated

C) Poorly devised

D) Poor over all

The "plot" is reminiscent of something seen on "Televido" at four in the afternoon. The whole thing is violently politically scewed, being based around the evil of anyone not a socialist.

Allende never once mentions the thousands of atrocities and mass murders perpetrated by the socialist government, and also fails to point out the fact that Chile blossomed into a technologically advanced country competetitive in the world market under its facist dictatorship.

It's grotesque, as well. I don't think any of the characters survive the book without being raped at some point, and homosexuality is encouraged as being noble.

The characters are all horribly sterotypical archetypes. The idea that this sort of literary musak is considered "classic literature" and forced upon impressionable students in high school.

My advice to all students out there: Refuse to read this book en masse. Your teacher won't fail all of you.