The House of the Spirits

A Novel

De: Isabel Allende

Narrado por: Thom Rivera, Marisol Ramirez

The unforgettable first novel that established Isabel Allende as one of the world's most gifted and imaginative storytellers.

The House of the Spirits brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife, Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their daughter, Blanca, embarks on a forbidden love affair in defiance of her implacable father, the result is an unexpected gift to Esteban: his adored granddaughter, Alba, a beautiful and strong-willed child who will lead her family and her country into a revolutionary future.

One of the most important novels of the 20th century, The House of the Spirits is an enthralling epic that spans decades and lives, weaving the personal and the political into a universal story of love, magic, and fate.

©1982 Isabel Allende. All rights reserved. (P)2016 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Didn’t Finish, Literally Couldn’t

I was very open minded going into this and listened to the first two hours before returning it. There is no discernible plot, the characters are very 2-dimensional and the book normalizes a few controversial things - women are referred like property to be stolen and owned with no argument, and there is a particularly disturbing scene where a man is described kissing between the legs of the corpse of a woman he wishes he’d kidnapped and locked away before she died.. it felt gross to even listen to. I wouldn’t waste a credit on this.

A must hear

I read Isabel Allende’s classic over 20 years ago and found it transformative. Some books open your eyes to the world, to history, to culture and to humanity in ways that really help you to grow as a person. This is one of those books. If you have already read it, it is well worth listening to again. The narration is perfect. I challenge you to try to listen to this without crying at least 3 times.

A wonderfull story by a great storyteller .

I truly enjoyed this novel! I know the story of her uncle’s demise and I appreciate what the people of chili went through. Isabel is a wonderful storyteller and I will continue to read everything she has written. God bless her.

Historical fiction that leads to understanding the assassination of Salvador Allende

I liked the generations of a family that lead to understanding the perspective of wealthy landowners, of peasants on their land, of socialist reformers, and even of the right-wing military dictadictators who took over Chile and other South American countries. Of course, I like the stream of feminist comments and the portraits of 4 generations of women.
I tolerated the magical realism of Clara moving furniture.

No wonder it’s considered a very important book of the 20th century.

Although the narrator is not as good as the one in “the daughter of fortune “ the amazing storytelling of Isabella Allende concours all resistens. I recommend this book highly.

Loved the saga told from female perspective

Reading was excellent quality and I enjoyed the story and talented readers or actors. Message of forgiveness came through strong and the importance of understanding inter generational impact of trauma

Strong characters

The book is long, but the characters start strong and continue to develop with the story. I couldn’t tell who was weaving the story until the end.

Better read, perhaps.

I wish that I had read this instead of listening. There are so many characters and it covers so much time that I wanted to go back to check on previous events and people but that was not possible in the audible format.

Family saga brought to life

Loved it! Great narration, vivid descriptions, good and bad. Fascinating story. Can't wait to hear more by Isabel Allende.

Just as good now as it was 20 years ago

I originally read this book freshmen year of high school. I had been a childhood reader and didn’t think anything of my reading level then, but I adored this book. Listening to it now makes me wonder how shocked so many of my classmates must have been. Bless Ms. C. who had us read this.

I was struck my the surrealism of this book and some its characters versus the grounding of others that somehow always wound up wrapped up in the more fantastical ones, and still am. I was so struck by this book of hers that I owned most of her books in actual bound form until recently losing many of my books to water damage. This was one that was on the top of my list to replace, not only in my collection in general, but of Isabel Allende’s in particular. If you do enjoy this book as a newbie to her work, read some of her other earlier works then her memoir Paula. When I did so it made me examine some of the “characters” and events in my own life and wonder how they would come across in a book.