About this title: In this sequel to DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE, Aurora del Valle, who belongs to a large and colorful Chilean family, looks back on the 30 years of her life and the events leading up to her birth, covering the years 1862 to 1910. In the process she provides a history of her family--including her beautiful mother, her Chinese grandfather, and her eccentric ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 11/2001
ISBN-13:9780066211619ISBN:0066211611
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 11/2001
ISBN-13:9780066211619ISBN:0066211611
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. read more
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 11/2001
ISBN-13:9780066211619ISBN:0066211611
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 11/2001
ISBN-13:9780066211619ISBN:0066211611
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 11/2001
ISBN-13:9780066211619ISBN:0066211611
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 11/2001
ISBN-13:9780066211619ISBN:0066211611
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 11/2001
ISBN-13:9780066211619ISBN:0066211611
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 11/2001
ISBN-13:9780066211619ISBN:0066211611
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 11/2001
ISBN-13:9780066211619ISBN:0066211611
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. read more
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780066211619ISBN:0066211611
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Very good in very good dust jacket. Remainder mark noted on lower textblock Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Harpercollins Publishers
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780060936365ISBN:0060936363
Description: Very Good. Describes a book that doesn't look quite brand new. May show some small signs of wear or minor spine creasing. Note this book is considered a trade or oversize paperback book. This book, may have library markings/stamps. Our ultimate goal is to provide you with a satisfying customer experience. read more
Description: Very Good. 0060936363 Great condition Soft Cover book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, light edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
"Whew... okay often when I just finish a book I want to give it 5 stars just for the fact that it brought me to the end and kept me interested. This book was an emotional rollercoaster, and if you're in the mood for an emotional rollercoaster, I'd recommend it. I read Daughters of Fortune a couple of months ago, and L-O-V-E-D it. This book ressurects some of the characters but through the eyes of one of their decendants.
The descriptions of travel, Chile, San Francisco, the clothing, furniture, lifestyle, business ventures, violence, injustices, war, poverty at the time the novel was based 1862-1910 were spectacular. The main characters were complicated and imperfectly real, and easy to love and relate to.
I'd have to say that it has a few too many supporting characters which are all painted in bright but simple colors. There were also relationships that I could not identify with and was confused by. Relationships where we are introduced and spend time with two characters, develop understandings of what they feel, how they act towards each other, then there is a paragraph which describes the relationship, which was not where I was, at all. Grandmother Paulina acts one way which leads me to certain understandings of her character, but then is described in words to be quite another kind of person. I also think there was not enough subtle emotions atrributed to most of the characters. Everyone was extremely one way or the other, with no inbetween. I love long sagas of families and I love them in locations I am unfamiliar with and I love them written by Latin American authors!"
"As an Allende fan, this novel was really fun, since it goes back to the del Valle family first introduced in "The House of the Spirits", which was written 20 years earlier. Again, this story tracks the family over several generations, but this time the grandparents and great-grandparents (and aunts and uncles) of Clara and Rosa in "The House of the Spirits". Delightfully, it also brings in the characters from "Daughter of Fortune", the narrator and main character being the daughter of Eliza Sommers, and it links the two families together."
"Isabel Allende has written a trilogy of novels that span the history of Chile from 1843 to the 1960s. The first one she wrote, House of the Spirits, was actually the last in the series. Then came, in order of publication, Daughter of Fortune, which was chronologically the first, and introduced a family that would become important in the rest of the story. In 2001, she published the linchpin book, Portrait in Sepia, which spans the period from 1862 to pre-World War I.
The hallmark of all these stories is the presence of strong women, all of whom defied the conventionality of the time and went on to do what they wanted with their lives. Although Portrait in Sepia is narrated by Aurora, the granddaughter of one of the characters who appears in Daughter of Fortune, the central character of the story is Paulina del Valle, an eccentric, imperious woman who is in incredibly sharp businesswoman, living in San Francisco at the story's opening. Eventually, she and Aurora live in Chile, surviving two wars.
The history that forms the background against which the characters move is fascinating. Not only do we get the political and military history, but also the customs, attitudes and social mores of the various levels of Chilean society during that time.
But nothing compares with the characters that Allende draws, especially the women, both conventional and non-conventional. It is through their eyes that we learn what is occurring politically, through their eyes that we see the outcomes, through their eyes that we observe the movers and shakers of Chile.
Portrait in Sepia doesn't have any magical realism in it, but it doesn't need it--the events of the times are bizarre enough without any fabrication. And Allende can write.
I was born in the early morning, but in Chinatown the clocks obey no rules, and at that hour the market, the cart traffic, the woeful barking of caged dogs awaiting the butcher's cleaver, were beginning to heat up.
Not only is she wonderfully descriptive, but powerfully imaginative, incorporating eccentric details into the story that leave you marveling.
Portrait in Sepia is worth reading if only for the history, but the central characters are unforgettable, and some of them will go on to their fates in House of the Spirits.
Portrait in Sepia is as enthralling as any American soap opera, with beautiful women and reluctant lovers and mismatched husbands and wives. Portrait in Sepia is more than a great tale with intriguing characters and inventive plot twists, though. It's also a thoughtful look at the blending of cultures and ethnicities and the difficulties and joys the blending brings.
Note: I'd not realized Sepia is a sequel; I wish I'd known this and read Daughter of Fortune first."
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