Isabel Allende

The house of the spirits

kari <33

I would use her notebooks and then reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own. 

Even before she was born, Nívea had known she was not of this world, because she had already seen her in dreams. 

the responsibility of her beauty would become her husband’s. 

until women shortened their dresses and their hair and stopped wearing corsets, it made no difference if they studied medicine or had the right to vote, because they would not have the strength to do it, but she herself was not brave enough to be among the first to give up the fashion. 

My problem was that I didn’t have a cent, although I felt capable, through my love, of becoming a rich man. 

The brother and sister had drifted apart, and the only thing that remained to unite them was the presence of their mother and the vague memory of the love they had had for each other as children. 

Whenever I think back on those days, I feel a great sadness. My life has gone by very fast. 

Zainab 

Es sei gut, wenn die Welt erführe, welche Greuel parallel zu dem friedliche geordneten Dasein anderer geschahen, derer, die nicht wissen wollten, derer, die es fertigbrachten, sich die Illusion von einem normalen Leben zu bewahren, derer, die leugnen konnten, daß sie auf einem Floß über ein Meer von Klagen fuhren, und die gegen alle Evidenz nicht sahen, daß ein paar Häuser neben ihrer glücklichen Welt die anderen waren, die, die auf der dunklen Seite überlebten oder starben. 

Taira Robles

It was another world. A world whose existence he had not even suspected. Until that moment there had been a dividing line on one side of which stood the solemn poor and on the other people like himself, among whom he had classed Amanda. He knew nothing of that silent middle class that struggled between genteel poverty and the impossible desire of emulating the golden canaille to which he himself belonged. He felt confused and embarrassed, thinking of the many occasions in the past when she must have had to use witchcraft to keep her poverty from being noticed at the Truebas' and he, in his complete innocence, hadn't helped her. He remembered his father's stories about his poor childhood and how at Nicolás's age he was already out working to support his mother and sister. For the first time in his life, he managed to link those didactic anecdotes with a reality he could see. He thought Amanda's life must be like that.

The house of the spirits quotes

Join the club