Isabel Allende
Born August 2, 1942
Lima, Peru
Writer of novels and memoirs
Isabel Allende. Getty Images.
"I knew exactly what was happening in my country, I lived through it, and the dea...
Read more
Isabel Allende
(1942 -)
Chilean novelist, essayist, journalist, short story writer, memoirist, playwright, and juvenile fiction writer.
Isabel Allende: Introduction
Isabel Allende: Principal Works
Isa...
Read more
Biography EssayIsabel Allende is the best-known and most widely read woman writer from Latin America. When the English translation of her widely acclaimed first novel, La casa de los espiritus (1982...
Read more
The author of several novels and a short fiction collection, as well as plays and stories for children, Isabel Allende (born 1942) has received international acclaim for her writing.Allende earned the...
Read more
Chilean novelist Isabel Allende has been critically acclaimed for her unique prose style. In addition to her use of a technique called "magic realism," Allende's works are noted for their underlying f...
Read more
Isabel Allende is the best-known and most widely read woman writer from Latin America. When the English translation of her widely acclaimed first novel, La casa de los espíritus (1982), appear...
Read more
Urquhart is a Canadian poet, novelist, and short story writer whose works include Changing Heaven (1990). In the following mixed review of The Stories of Eva Luna, she states that "what one tak...
Read more
Below, Hart discusses Allende's shift to a Mexican-American protagonist in El plan infinito and praises her characterization, imaginative prose, and humor.
All the exuberant strengths and endea...
Read more
An American poet, critic, essayist, and editor, Bly is a prominent figure in contemporary American letters. In the review below, he examines Allende's treatment of American history in The Infin...
Read more
In the following review of The Infinite Plan, Arana-Ward argues that Allende's novel suffers from clichés, "numbing descriptions," and slight characterizations.
A promise i...
Read more
Simon is an American biographer who has written works on such figures as Gertrude Stein and Thornton Wilder. In the review below, she argues that The Infinite Plan is "ethically diverse,"...
Read more
Rubin is an American critic. In the following review of The Infinite Plan, he argues that the novel "is ambitious in scope, but merely competent in execution."
The Infinite Plan is Isabe...
Read more
In the review below, McNeil contends that Allende's treatment of themes in The Infinite Plan is predictable and simplistic, and that her female characters are stereotypical.
"What they m...
Read more
In the essay below, Hart examines what she terms "feminocentric magic realism" in The Stories of Eva Luna, focusing on Allende's handling of such issues as prostitution and rape.
...
Read more
In the following interview, Allende discusses her writing technique, how personal experience has affected her works, her literary influences, and her career as a journalist.
[Toms]: You began your wri...
Read more
In the following essay, Diamond-Nigh examines Allende's treatment of Latin-American literary history in Eva Luna.
In the beginning was the Word. And in the end. The opening lines of Isabel Alle...
Read more
Kingsolver is an American novelist, short story writer, nonfiction writer, and poet. In the review below, she discusses the plots of various stories in The Stories of Eva Luna, calling them "mi...
Read more
De Ferrari is a Peruvian-born art curator and novelist. In the following review of Paula, she discusses Allende's portrayal of her life and family.
Isabel Allende's new book, Paula, is m...
Read more
Grumbach is an American educator, biographer, memoirist, and critic who has written such works as Coming into the Endzone: A Memoir (1991). In the following review of Paula, she praises Allende'...
Read more
In the following review of Paula, Ruta faults Allende's writing as overly sentimental and criticizes Allende for failing to more fully develop Paula's character.
"All sorrows can ...
Read more
In the following review of Paula, Schwirtz states that Allende's depiction of her personal pain is intense and excruciating.
In Chilean author Isabel Allende's life, two tragic twists of...
Read more
In the following review of Paula, Butt contends that Allende's "defenceless optimism" and "effusive generosity" are effective in her memoirs but not necessarily in h...
Read more
Below, Behar praises Paula as "immensely life-affirming."
"Listen, Paula, I am going to tell you a story, so that when you wake up you will not feel so lost." With those si...
Read more
In the review below, DuBow states that while Paula is not really about Allende's daughter, the work nevertheless expresses true grief over her death.
Isabel Allende's autobiographical Pa...
Read more
In the review below, Butt focuses on the romantic themes in The Stories of Eva Luna.
Readers of Isabel Allende's previous novel, Eva Luna, will recall that we left the left-wing waif in Cloud C...
Read more
In the following essay, which originally appeared as a chapter of a senior honors thesis presented at Harvard College on March 1, 1991, García-Johnson examines Allende's representation o...
Read more
An American critic and educator, Hart is the author of Narrative Magic in the Fiction of Isabel Allende (1989). Below, she discusses Allende's narrative structures, characters, and use of magic...
Read more
In the following review, Bader calls Allende a "master storyteller" but questions her treatment of women and feminist issues in The Stories of Eva Luna.
Like virtually every American, I ...
Read more
Ruta is an American fiction writer and critic. In the following review of The Stories of Eva Luna, she describes Allende's stories as "mini-epics, mini-tragedies or even mini-sagas.�...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Rehbein maintains that Allende manipulates language and the narrator's voice in Eva Luna to represent a changing reality in the narrative.
Cuando escribi Eva Luna, po...
Read more
In the following essay, Roof compares the narrative patterns of The House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, and The Infinite Plan to W. E. B. Du Bois's theory of “double con...
Read more
In the following review, McMurray comments on Allende's literary accomplishment with Paula.
Isabel Allende's most recent book is a memoir dedicated to her daughter Paula, who died in 199...
Read more
In the following review, Hooper compliments the sensuous elements of Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses.
If [Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses] is just a cookbook, then Allende's novels are just...
Read more
In the following review, Mujica lauds both the literary and gastronomical dimensions of Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses.
Ever since Laura Esquivel published her spectacularly successful novel, Like ...
Read more
In the following interview, Allende discusses her views of American culture, her place in literature, and the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
[Skafidas]: Until you and your family ...
Read more
In the following review, Novella evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Daughter of Fortune.
Chilean author Isabel Allende, having followed the culinary example of her Mexican colleague Laura Esqui...
Read more
In the following review, Adil praises the fresh look at nineteenth-century Chilean and American life in Daughter of Fortune, but finds shortcomings with the novel's clichéd characters.
I...
Read more
In the following review, Donaldson lauds Allende's rich characters and the cultural diversity of the setting in Daughter of Fortune.
Isabel Allende has too often been lazily claimed as a magic ...
Read more
In the following review, Mujica appreciates Allende's multicultural diversity and feminist perspective in Portrait in Sepia.
Isabel Allende's latest novel continues the saga of the Somme...
Read more
In the following review, Stavans faults Portrait in Sepia for relying too heavily on the plots of Allende's previous novels, noting that the novel caters to the entertainment market rather than...
Read more
In the following essay, Rehbein examines the order and content of the narrative in Eva Luna, showing the power of a storyteller to shape time and reality to suit her own needs as well as the needs of ...
Read more
In the following review, Graham finds the plot of Portrait in Sepia formulaic and predictable, but appreciates its perspectives on the human struggle to live and love.
On the first page of Isabel Alle...
Read more
In the following review, Kephart criticizes the awkward prose and jarring plot of Portrait in Sepia, but argues that the novel is still an entertaining read.
In the opening paragraph of her ninth, exo...
Read more
In the following review, Schwirtz observes several of Allende's familiar recurring themes in Paula.
In Chilean author Isabel Allende's life, two tragic twists of fate marked sharply dive...
Read more
In the following review, Hopkinson praises Allende's achievement in Paula.
To have your child predecease you is to witness an unnatural act. To attempt to make sense of the senseless is but hum...
Read more
In the following review, Behar examines Paula with respect to Allende's past and motivation for writing the work.
“Listen, Paula, I am going to tell you a story, so that when you wake up...
Read more
In the following interview, Allende discusses her writing process and her approach to marketing Paula.
The night before this interview I attended a talk by Isabel Allende at Georgetown University ...
Read more
In the following essay, Cohn compares the literary techniques of Ralph Ellison in Invisible Man and Allende in La casa de los espíritus, examining their respective treatment of the marginalizat...
Read more
In the following review of The Stories of Eva Luna, Mujica praises Allende for her strong female characters and psychological insight.
Cuentos de Eva Luna (The Stories of Eva Luna) shows us Isabel All...
Read more
In the following essay, Levine offers a stylistic and thematic analysis of The Stories of Eva Luna.
While each of Isabel Allende's books seems to emerge almost organically from the one that imm...
Read more
In the following essay, Spanos examines the role of the main female character Casilda within the concepts of literary feminism in the short story “The Judge’s Wife.”
Isabel Allend...
Read more
In the following interview, originally published in 1991, Allende considers the relationship between her novel Eva Luna and her story volume The Stories of Eva Luna.
Isabel Allende's novel The ...
Read more
In the following negative review of The Stories of Eva Luna, Ruta contends that many of the stories in the volume are sentimental, contrived, and lacking in substance.
In her first novel, The House of...
Read more
In the following essay, Hart contends that Allende employs the technique of magic realism in The Stories of Eva Luna in order to present a feminist perspective on issues such as prostitution, domestic...
Read more
In the following positive review of The Stories of Eva Luna, Allgood maintains that “although Allende's stories can be read on various levels, enjoyment can be attained on a visceral lev...
Read more
In the following essay, Danow discusses the elements of a “carnival” attitude in the short stories of Allende, Isaac Babel, Jorge Luis Borges, and Juan Rulfo and explores the theme of re...
Read more
In the following interview, Allende discusses stylistic and thematic aspects of The Stories of Eva Luna.
Isabel Allende, a Chilean, was born in Lima, Peru, in 1942. Her career covers a wide range of e...
Read more
In the following essay, Lindsay provides a socio-psychoanalytic reading of “Niña perversa” in order to examine Allende's use of romantic conventions in her fiction.
In an e...
Read more
All main characters in both The House of the Spirits and Of Love and Shadows are strong, temperamental women who stand up for what they believe and fight for what they want out of their lives. Isab...
Read more
Allende, Isabel
Allende, Isabel
Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende
