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 The Shrouded Woman was my second reading for this class. Compared to our first reading Swann's Way, I found this novella not only easier to follow but far more capable of keeping me fully engaged as well. Before starting the reading, I can honestly say i was a bit worried that i might not understand it, or like it enough to read through it comfortably, but I can truly say I enjoyed reading it from beginning to end! This story is narrated by woman who had recently passed away. My guess is that it takes place at an open casket funeral. Ana Maria, or the shrouded woman, recounts key moments of her life while she lies dead. With each person that approaches her lifeless body, Ana Maria shares a detailed story on how they had impacted her life. She struggles to rest peacefully before facing these individuals and the hardships they caused her, one last time. Her stories involve life with her children and past lovers. 

There were two key men/lovers that played a huge roll in the woman's life; Her first love, Ricardo, and Antonio, the man she ended up marrying. To summarize, her first love was passionate, fun and new until Ricardo was forced to leave her for his studies. A while after, she met and married Antonio, who at first she wasn't too crazy about at first but after spending time apart realized he was someone she loved (even though he was everything BUT an ideal husband). There are a few reasons why i can't help but feel sad for the shrouded woman. Probably the biggest reason being that she never got over her first love, despite marrying and having kids with a different man. She admits that "the love she thought was dead, had slept hidden," and even though she was devoted to her relationship with Antonio, years later she felt excitement to hear that Ricardo had split from his wife. 

I imagine that being married to someone while still having deeply buried feelings for a past lover would be awful. However her relationship with Antonio made me equally as sad. I think the fact that this story was written and experienced by woman made it resonate with me even more. Not saying i have experienced marriage or a relationship the same as Ana maria, but i do think a lot of her experiences and emotions are relatable as a woman. Essentially, her entire relationship with Antonio was miserable. He was abusive and undeserving of the love Ana maria offered. She did nothing but try to please him, while all he did was tolerate her. This just resulted in a lifetime of anger and misery for the poor woman. 

I realize this is getting extremely long, but I just wanted to mention one last thing that i found quite interesting about this text. There is quite an obsession with a woman named Maria Griselda. She is married to Ana Maria's son, Alberto. She's is essentially seen as the epitome of beauty and every man in this novel seems to be in love with her. She is seen as so desirable that one woman even takes her own life because her husband admits to writing letters to Maria. When the shrouded woman finally speaks with Maria, she essentially tells her that she was loved less, and had to to deal with more hardships in her life because she was that beautiful. The shrouded woman then feels pity for her. I may have read that part wrong so please correct me in the comments if i am haha. But i just wanted to throw this in here because I found their attitude toward jealousy very interesting. In todays society, you would never catch people being so openly envious of someone else. Furthermore if a woman ever expresses herself as Maria did to the shrouded woman, it would be seen as arrogance. 

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I have not gotten lost in a book for a long time and this novel gave me just that feeling... read full post >>

I found that this week’s text, “The Shrouded Woman” by María Luisa Bombal was a very spiritual, and intimately written... read full post >>

Out of all the texts we’ve so far covered in this course, I enjoyed this one the most. I found it relatively easy to read and comprehend, perhaps the fact it was written by a woman made it easier for me to relate to. Parts of it were a bit unsettling and maddening to read […] read full post >>

Reading Bombal’s novel The Shrouded Woman, as a woman, I felt deeply appreciated that a book like this existed in such a time. I’m not quite sure how prevalent female authors were at the time or how popular their works were, but I’m glad that Bombal had the opportunity to share her perception of a […] read full post >>

Reading Bombal’s novel The Shrouded Woman, as a woman, I felt deeply appreciated that a book like this existed in such a time. I’m not quite sure how prevalent female authors were at the time or how popular their works were, but I’m glad that Bombal had the opportunity to share her perception of a […] read full post >>

I really enjoyed this read. After having read the two previous novels, this style of writing was certainly refreshing for me. I enjoyed how well it flowed from chapter to chapter and how they were relatively short. Similar to the last two texts, I found the writing to be very descriptive, but that is partially what I loved most for this novel. Each new setting and situation was described so beautifully that it was easy for me to let my mind travel into these spaces . As a lover of romantic movies and books, this reading definitely hit the spot. I particularly enjoy feeling as though I am reading someone’s personal journal entry, which this definitely felt like. I love to journal, but mine are certainly not this graceful!

I really loved  how accurately a young girl's first love was displayed. The rollercoaster of emotions between a love so consuming, and a hate that is so intense. Not only that, but the power Ricardo in particular held over her, which I think is often typical in a young relationship between a girl and boy. Saying things like “I am not the one to blame” and making her feel inadequate of his love and responsible for the way things to workout. She claims to have moved on, found peace, knowing deep down if he were to return, she would be the first one there to greet him. Although I love how accurately this was portrayed, I do however hate that this is the way for so many young women.  

Following this, additionally the difficulties that are often found when entering new relationships. For the author, this was surely her experience. She had a hard time getting to a point in these relationships to genuinely enjoy them and struggled with being authentic. Sometimes this feeling of a first love can't be shaken and almost follows you around as you age. This is especially frustrating when you are aware that it wasn't right nor healthy. 

The fact that the author has already passed provided an interesting view-point. Of course, having died, there is a certain wisdom that would otherwise not be present if alive. She says “Must we die in order to know these things ?” (176), which I found interesting. I think this represents that the author was not so focused on things that didn't matter in the larger picture so much as what stood out to her while still proving these events in great detail.

My question is how much this perspective of writing from death changed the message and content of the story. Do you think that her experiences would have been explained differently at all if she were to have been alive while writing this novel?

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I really enjoyed this read. After having read the two previous novels, this style of writing was certainly refreshing for me. I enjoyed how well it flowed from chapter to chapter and how they were relatively short. Similar to the last two texts, I found the writing to be very descriptive, but that is partially what I loved most for this novel. Each new setting and situation was described so beautifully that it was easy for me to let my mind travel into these spaces . As a lover of romantic movies and books, this reading definitely hit the spot. I particularly enjoy feeling as though I am reading someone’s personal journal entry, which this definitely felt like. I love to journal, but mine are certainly not this graceful!

I really loved  how accurately a young girl's first love was displayed. The rollercoaster of emotions between a love so consuming, and a hate that is so intense. Not only that, but the power Ricardo in particular held over her, which I think is often typical in a young relationship between a girl and boy. Saying things like “I am not the one to blame” and making her feel inadequate of his love and responsible for the way things to workout. She claims to have moved on, found peace, knowing deep down if he were to return, she would be the first one there to greet him. Although I love how accurately this was portrayed, I do however hate that this is the way for so many young women.  

Following this, additionally the difficulties that are often found when entering new relationships. For the author, this was surely her experience. She had a hard time getting to a point in these relationships to genuinely enjoy them and struggled with being authentic. Sometimes this feeling of a first love can't be shaken and almost follows you around as you age. This is especially frustrating when you are aware that it wasn't right nor healthy. 

The fact that the author has already passed provided an interesting view-point. Of course, having died, there is a certain wisdom that would otherwise not be present if alive. She says “Must we die in order to know these things ?” (176), which I found interesting. I think this represents that the author was not so focused on things that didn't matter in the larger picture so much as what stood out to her while still proving these events in great detail.

My question is how much this perspective of writing from death changed the message and content of the story. Do you think that her experiences would have been explained differently at all if she were to have been alive while writing this novel?

read full post >>

Concerning this week’s reading, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out the author was Chilean, which meant the original... read full post >>

After reading Bombal’s “the shrouded woman” I am left with many thoughts about life and the many intersecting joys and miseries one experiences in it. This is likely an intended thought process, as the peculiar method of narration, where a disembodied voice describes protagonist Anna-Maria’s post-mortem journey through memory, subsequently switching to her first person […] read full post >>