The Stories of Eva Luna
by Isabel Allende
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An intoxicating collection of short fiction by one of the most beloved writers of our time. Eva Luna is a young woman whose powers as a storyteller bring her friendship and love. Lying in bed with her European lover, refugee and journalist Rolf Carlé, Eva answers his request for a story "you have never told anyone before" with these twenty-three samples of her vibrant artistry. Interweaving the real and the magical, she explores love, vengeance, compassion, and the strengths of women, show more creating a world that is at once poignantly familiar and intriguingly new. Rendered in her sumptuously imagined, uniquely magical style, The Stories of Eva Luna is the cornerstone of Allende's work. This treasure trove of brilliantly crafted stories is a superb example of a writer working at the height of her powers. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This collection of short stories is kind of a strange beast. It followed the publication Allende's book "Eva Luna" and is 23 short stories told by the character of Eva Luna, a gifted storyteller who told her own colorful life story in the previous book.
These are primarily stories about love, often obsessive, passionate love that can either destroy or elevate the characters lives. Some of the tales are pretty bawdy and erotic. Most feature strong women who overcome repressive situations. A handful of the stories are set in the prominent locations of "Eva Luna" and provide fuller pictures of characters from that book.
Like "Eva Luna," and all of Isabel Allende that I've read, the prose is very descriptive but features very little dialogue. show more This sometimes makes it a rather dense read. Plus, since all the stories are being told by "Eva Luna," they all have the same voice, leading to a repetitive feeling at times. Still, these are wonderful stories from a tropical, overheated locale, and all are dripping with compassion and emotion. show less
These are primarily stories about love, often obsessive, passionate love that can either destroy or elevate the characters lives. Some of the tales are pretty bawdy and erotic. Most feature strong women who overcome repressive situations. A handful of the stories are set in the prominent locations of "Eva Luna" and provide fuller pictures of characters from that book.
Like "Eva Luna," and all of Isabel Allende that I've read, the prose is very descriptive but features very little dialogue. show more This sometimes makes it a rather dense read. Plus, since all the stories are being told by "Eva Luna," they all have the same voice, leading to a repetitive feeling at times. Still, these are wonderful stories from a tropical, overheated locale, and all are dripping with compassion and emotion. show less
This is such a difficult book to rate or even to review. I don't know how I feel about it.
Some stories were great. Mystical without going into the absurd. Hopeful but not without tragedy. And to do that multiple times in a story that's so short, is nothing but amazing.
But I hated, even loathed some other stories.
Partly because the Dutch translation is just bad. The language was too old for the story (I don't know the correct words in English), words were being used that were just so Dutch it felt weird to read them in a story that took place in South America.
Another part why I loathed some stories is because some stories are just too creepy (as in morally reprehensible) for me. But I do recognise that my feelings about those stories show more are like that, because I'm looking at it from a different time, place and culture.
But... I read all the stories. I had intens feelings about most of them. And the ones I found boring, well, few pages later and it ended. But I can only remember one I was really bored while reading.
Isabel Allende is a great writer. A great storyteller. One whose stories can survive even a bad translation. Her stories has a subtle feel to it. And I do think they can mean something different for everybody.
I'm glad that these stories still hold so much meaning for me, even though I couldn't remember almost all of them.
I do wonder. Will I still feel the same in twenty years? I really hope so.
p.s. THAT COVER IS HORRIBLE! Also the scanner on Goodreads suggested another book while I tried to add this one. *facepalm* This author deserves unique covers!
p.p.s interesting fact about me. I switched between Dutch and English while taking notes. For some reason my first instinct is to review in English. Damn you globalisation! show less
Some stories were great. Mystical without going into the absurd. Hopeful but not without tragedy. And to do that multiple times in a story that's so short, is nothing but amazing.
But I hated, even loathed some other stories.
Partly because the Dutch translation is just bad. The language was too old for the story (I don't know the correct words in English), words were being used that were just so Dutch it felt weird to read them in a story that took place in South America.
Another part why I loathed some stories is because some stories are just too creepy (as in morally reprehensible) for me. But I do recognise that my feelings about those stories show more are like that, because I'm looking at it from a different time, place and culture.
But... I read all the stories. I had intens feelings about most of them. And the ones I found boring, well, few pages later and it ended. But I can only remember one I was really bored while reading.
Isabel Allende is a great writer. A great storyteller. One whose stories can survive even a bad translation. Her stories has a subtle feel to it. And I do think they can mean something different for everybody.
I'm glad that these stories still hold so much meaning for me, even though I couldn't remember almost all of them.
I do wonder. Will I still feel the same in twenty years? I really hope so.
p.s. THAT COVER IS HORRIBLE! Also the scanner on Goodreads suggested another book while I tried to add this one. *facepalm* This author deserves unique covers!
p.p.s interesting fact about me. I switched between Dutch and English while taking notes. For some reason my first instinct is to review in English. Damn you globalisation! show less
The Stories of Eva Luna - Allende
Audio performance by multiple narrators
4 stars
A follow-up to Allende’s Eva Luna this is a collection of short stories loosely formatted like the tales of Scheherazade. Many of the stories overlap with the settings and characters of the first book, while some of them seem unrelated. They’re interesting short stories with interesting characters, touches of magical realism and heavy doses of satire. Some of the stories worked better for me than others. My favorites were those that returned to characters from the first book. One or two that dealt with adolescent sexually were distasteful to me. Most of the audio performers were very good, although one of the female actors had a robotic delivery that show more spoiled the story. show less
Audio performance by multiple narrators
4 stars
A follow-up to Allende’s Eva Luna this is a collection of short stories loosely formatted like the tales of Scheherazade. Many of the stories overlap with the settings and characters of the first book, while some of them seem unrelated. They’re interesting short stories with interesting characters, touches of magical realism and heavy doses of satire. Some of the stories worked better for me than others. My favorites were those that returned to characters from the first book. One or two that dealt with adolescent sexually were distasteful to me. Most of the audio performers were very good, although one of the female actors had a robotic delivery that show more spoiled the story. show less
Is this the "50 Shades of Grey" of the early '90s? Great scene setting in a romantic South America in everyone of these short stories. Halfway through, I started to find the themes repetitive and a bit disturbing: beautiful women are invariably coupled with much older, more powerful men, and true love and passion blossom after a first violent intercourse, ie rape. Maybe female readers will have an other opinion; it felt a lot like this collection of short stories was intended for them.
Some really good stories about life in South-America, mostly in the past. It's a book to dip into, not to try and read in one go, because there are too many very different stories. Some are OK, some are brilliant.
These richly entertaining stories have many passionate full-blooded heroines and lots of interesting twists. If you like short stories where nothing much happens overtly and the action is subtle, perhaps even barely perceptible, these are not the stories for you. So many of the stories are the literary equivalents of full body slams that it would be difficult to read them in quick succession. You at least have to stop and catch your breath before moving on the the next one.
Una niña solitaria se enamora del amante de su madre y practica misteriosas ceremonias rituales; una mujer permanece medio siglo encerrada en un sótano, víctima de un caudillo celoso; en el fragor de una batalla, un hombre viola a una muchacha y mata a su padre... Estas son algunas de las historias reunidas en este volumen que recupera, con pulso vibrante, los inolvidables protagonistas de la novela Eva Luna : Rolf Carlé, la Maestra Inés, el Benefactor... Veintitrés relatos de amor y violencia secretamente entrelazados por un fino hilo narrativo y un rico lenguaje que recrea azarosas peripecias en un mundo sensual y mágico. Veintitrés cuentos memorables de Isabel Allende escritos con exquisita precisión y profundo conocimiento show more del alma humana, con un tono siempre contenido, casi secreto, en contraste con las extraordinarias imágenes, el paisaje exuberante y las extravagantes pasiones que determinan el destino de los personajes show less
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Author Information
86+ Works 84,665 Members
Isabel Allende was born in 1942 in Lima, Peru, the daughter of a Chilean diplomat. When her parents separated, young Isabel moved with her mother to Chile, where she spent the rest of her childhood. She married at the age of 19 and had two children, Paula and Nicolas. Her uncle was Salvador Allende, the president of Chile. When he was overthrown show more in the coup of 1973, she fled Chile, moving to Caracas, Venezuela. While living in Venezuela, Allende began writing her novels, many of them exploring the close family bonds between women. Her first novel, The House of the Spirits, has been translated into 27 languages, and was later made into a film. She then wrote Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, and The Stories of Eva Luna, all set in Latin America. The Infinite Plan was her first novel to take place in the United States. She explores the issues of human rights and the plight of immigrants and refugees in her novel, In The Midst of Winter. In Paula, Allende wrote her memoirs in connection with her daughter's illness and death. She delved into the erotic connections between food and love in Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses. In addition to writing books, Allende has worked as a TV interviewer, magazine writer, school administrator, and a secretary at a U.N. office in Chile. She received the 1996 Harold Washington Literacy Award. She lives in California. Her title Maya's Notebook made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2013. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Het goud van Tomás Vargas: de verhalen van Eva Luna
- Original title
- Cuentos de Eva Luna
- Original publication date
- 1989
- People/Characters
- Eva Luna
- Epigraph
- The King ordered the Grand Vizier to bring him a virgin every night, and when the night was over, he ordered her to be killed. And thus it had happened for three years, and in all the city there was no damsel left to withstan... (show all)d the assaults of this rider. But the vizier had a daughter of great beauty, named Scheherazade ... and she was very eloquent, and pleased all who heard her.
A Thousand and One Tales of the Arabian Nights - Dedication
- For William Gordon, for times shared.
I. A. - First words
- You untied your sash, kicked off your sandals, tossed your full skirt into the corner - it was cotton, if I remember - and loosened the clasp that held your hair in a ponytail.
- Quotations*
- La muerte no existe, hija. La gente sólo muere cuando la olvidan
- Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Ik weet wanneer je terugkeert naar je nachtmerrie en wij opnieuw samen op weg zullen gaan, hand in hand, net als vroeger.
- Original language
- Spanish
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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