Classics Corner: The House of The Spirits by Isabel Allende; A Grand Epic Magical Realism Novel About Three Generations of a Chilean Family

Classics Corner: The House of The Spirits by Isabel Allende; A Grand Epic Magical Realism Novel About Three Generations of a Chilean Family

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: I am becoming quite a fan of Magical Realism so much that it is my favorite subgenre in Fantasy.
Magical Realism is when fantastic events happen in a real world setting. It could be in history or in present day but it is a realistic setting. However something magical happens that suddenly makes it not so real. Perhaps a fantasy character like a fairy appears or some characters have supernatural abilities.
Many Central and South American authors practically own this genre with many names such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia), Paulo Coelho (Brazil), and Isabel Allende (Chile) coming from these countries. Their books demonstrate how the magic is joined with the mundane.
The key isn't necessarily the magical elements but it's how they relate to the mundanities of the rest of the plot. Most of the time they are considered a regular element even a part of the novel's history and culture.Sometimes the magical elements are simply treated as a non-event or just one of those things.

Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits is a perfect example of a magical realistic novel in which some characters are endowed with unusual qualities and fantastic situations but they also have to live in a real world of political upheavals, domestic violence, unhappy marriages, and abject poverty.
The most fantastic elements of Allende's epic novel occur in the lives of two Chilean sisters: Rosa “The Beautiful” and Clara “The Clairvoyant” del Valle. The interest in their magical uniqueness is actually downplayed to where other characters remark on them but no more than they would if say a character was extraordinarily gifted in math and science or a beautiful girl is noticed for her striking good looks. Their odd qualities are interesting but not considered outlandish or otherworldly to others. They are just accepted as a part of them.
Rosa has natural green hair thereby proving the possibility that her mother's family might be descended from mermaids. Oh well, they say, it makes her more beautiful but other than that so what? Clara is highly clairvoyant, has an uncanny success rate of predicting the future, and talks to spirits. Some may find it weird but most people come to her with questions about family members or the results of the next election. The magical elements blend in so well with the realism that the Reader begins to accept the idea that they might be a part of daily Chilean life.

Besides their magical abilities, the two sisters become well developed characters in their relationships with others particularly with Esteban Trueba, a former laborer with plans to move ahead in life as the owner of Tres Marias, a country estate. At first he is engaged to Rosa but when she dies, he goes to seek his fortune only to return to marry Clara. (just as she predicted.)
Esteban and Clara's marriage is a study in contrast and displays the complexities of Magical Realism in which the two elements may exist but it is not always a peaceful coexistence. Clara represents the magical and Esteban represents the realism.
Clara dresses all in white and lives mostly within herself. She reads Tarot Cards and participates in Spiritualism conversations with ghosts through table rapping and befriending mediums. She spends most of her days writing detailed notebooks about her life, interpreting her dreams, seeing the future, and living in a separate existence apart from her family particularly her cruel and at times abusive husband. Even after she gives birth to three children, they are often left in the care of servants, Clara's far seeing grandmother, or Esteban's prim sister while Clara participates in her Spiritualism activities. Occasionally she takes an interest in the physical world around her such as when a massive earthquake kills or incapacitates several members of her family and she assumes her role as the lady of the estate. However she always returns to her secretive spiritual world, the world that she prefers to the natural world of an unhappy marriage, constant strife and conflict, and threats from various revolutionaries.

While Clara exists in the supernatural world, Esteban prefers to make his home in the physical world around him. He is concerned with getting more money and bringing progress to Tres Marias even if it means exploiting his workers to do so. He is also at the center of various political conflicts in the novel. A Conservative Senator, Esteban becomes a symbol of the decadence and cruelty of the upper class. He becomes the target of various revolutionaries particularly Labor Unions, Socialists, and Militarists all who would love to make Esteban and his family an example of their treatment towards their enemies.
The conflict between Esteban's realism vs. Clara's magic makes their marriage a deeply troubled one as Clara ignores her husband most of the time and Esteban either yells at or strikes his wife to get her to obey him.

Esteban and Clara's divergent world views are also carried over into their children particularly their daughter, Blanca and granddaughter, Alba. Blanca inherits her father's involvement in politics, but she also has some of her mother's precognitive abilities allowing her to visualize a better world and become something of an idealist. This idealism puts her at odds with her father as she is committed to help the poor and befriends and eventually becomes lovers with Pedro Tercero Garcia, the son of Tres Maria's foreman. Her father forces her into an unhappy marriage with an obnoxious count with a rapacious sexual appetite. She eventually leaves him and returns to her parents becoming the target of her father's anger but her mother's affection.
Even after Clara dies, the Trueba's connections to the magical supernatural world continue as Blanca's daughter, Alba, not only inherits Clara's precognition but also Rosa’s green hair. She also possess a unique ability that no one else in her family has: the ability to soften Esteban as he bonds with his granddaughter while still estranged from his daughter.

The irony is that the most seemingly magical member of the Trueba family, Alba, is also the one who is the most involved in the real world around her. She attends Socialist rallies and is involved with a young activist who ends up on the run. When Chile is taken over by a military junta, Alba is imprisoned and tortured by a soldier whose advances she once spurned and who also happens to be Esteban's illegitimate son with Pedro Tercero Garcia’s aunt.
Both Alba and Blanca use their home as a temporary stopping place for refugees to escape the junta. This creates a clever play on words and a fascinating amalgam of the magical and mundane because the Trueba family home was once considered a home to many of Clara's supernatural spirits that she communicated with now becomes a temporary home to physical spirits, or people who are planning to escape the tyrannical government.

Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits does a terrific job of balancing Magic and Realism making this a perfect example of the genre. It shows what a great fantasy novel can do.