SOURCE: Swanson, Philip. “Structure and Meaning in La misteriosa desaparición de la marquesita de Loria.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 63, no. 3 (July 1986): 247-56.

In the following essay, Swanson describes La misteriosa desaparición de la marquesita de Loria as a metaphor that masks its complexity.

Donoso's seventh novel, La misteriosa desaparición de la marquesita de Loria, is at first sight a surprising departure from the author's profound, intellectual outlook. Humberto Rivas sees it merely as ‘un divertimiento de José Donoso’, a light-hearted sexual fantasy whose tasteful treatment never threatens ‘el tono festivo de toda la narración’.¹ However, as Pérez Blanco has correctly observed, La marquesita de Loria ‘es mucho más que una novela erótica y galante’.² Unfortunately, the latter critic's position is equally limited, for he considers the novel simply to be a reworking of Blest Gana's brand of social realism. Although there...