The House of the Spirits

Julia writes:
I am currently reading The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende for my independent reading book. This book is a best seller and has had worldwide success. The House of the Spirits oddly originated from a letter Allende was writing to her grandfather when she heard the news of his sudden illness. The book is based on stories through four generations of the Trueba family, all revealed through a young girl’s journal. So far, I am up to Chapter 7. The main characters include Severo de Valle, Nivea de Valle, Clara de Valle, Rosa the Beautiful, Blanca, Esteban Trueba, the Count, and Pedro Tercero. 
Clara is the main character, a girl who can predict deaths and communicate with spirits. As a child, Clara’s priest claims she is possessed by the devil. She watches her sister’s autopsy (Rosa the Beautiful) in disgust. She fears that Rosa’s death was caused by her own words, going mute for several years. Esteban, Rosa’s fiance, is shocked and depressed by the sudden death. Ignoring his sister’s warning, Esteban goes to his family’s hacienda called Tres Marias. He decides to spend the time to improve it and try to make it a moneymaking estate. He rapes several girls in hopes to satisfy his sexual cravings, and even gets a few of them pregnant. Though he is having a great time, he receives news from his sister that Dona Ester, his mother, is dying. Esteban immediately leaves Tres Marias. While seeing his mother at her last moments, she tells him she will die peacefully if he marries and settles with a woman he loves. Immediately afterward, he asks Severo and Nivea which De Valle daughter he could marry, and they offer Clara. Shortly before their marriage, Esteban builds them a beautiful home which everybody calls “the big house on the corner”. Clara slowly begins to fall in love with Esteban, as he does with her. Clara demands that Ferula lives with them, and soon an unbreakable bond grows between the two. A few months later, as expected, Esteban and Clara’s daughter Blanca arrives.
When Blanca is about three, the family decides to spend a summer at Tres Marias. Clara loves it so much that she decides that they will live there. Ferula hates Tres Marias, but sacrafices to live with her beloved Clara. Blanca falls in love with the caretaker of the hacienda, Pedro Tercero. Finally breaking her silence, Clara soon discovers that she has become pregnant with twins, Jaime and Nicolas. She and Ferula move to the city to get appropriate care for her labor. In fury that she did not name one of the children after him, Esteban goes to the brothel. He re-encounters Transito, a prostitute whom he had sexual relations with in the past. Not long after, Severo and Nivea get into a terrible car accident, and Nivea‘s head is severed from her body. Since Clara is in labor, the family tries to hide the news from her. However, Clara’s dreams reveal the tragedy to her in the night. One night, Esteban returns home from Tres Marias to find Ferula in Clara’s bed, and kicks her out of their home for good in anger. Months later, Ferula’s spirit comes to Clara to say goodbye, and as the couple discovers, Ferula died in a poor section of the city.
An earthquake destroys Tres Marias, crushing Esteban and killing Nana (through fear). Esteban miraculously survives, though he is confined to bed and a wheelchair. Sadly, Clara grows apart from him mentally and physically. She begins spending more time on her own, tending to her journal, and leaving the chores to somebody else. Esteban is saddened by her want to separate, because he is still madly in love with her. Soon, a mysterious neighbor named Count Jean de Satigny moves in. He has an extreme desire to marry Blanca, and stalks her relationship with Pedro Tercero even after her denial to marry him. At the news that his daughter has been seeing this man in secret, Esteban is infuriated. He brings the news to Clara, who claims that Esteban has done the same with several women. She brings to his attention that the only difference is that Pedro loves Blanca. Esteban hits his wife with so much power that he knocks out many of her teeth. He apologizes, but never again in her life does Clara speak to him.
Though I am only halfway through the novel, I can’t stand to put it down. It is very suspenseful and keeps the reader coming back for more. I have come to love the characters, and feel as if I know them personally. Isabel Allende does a wonderful job with this novel, and so far I would recommend it for any age. I hope that the ending turns out as I expect it will, and even if it doesn’t, I am still anticipating it. I love this book.