Summary

María, daughter of a cloth merchant in Lima, was an ugly and stuttering child who suffered the sarcasms of her mother and lived in solitude to the extent she was able. The wealth of her family must nevertheless have made her desirable as a wife, and although she avoided marriage, at the age of 26 she was wed to a haughty and impecunious aristocrat.

María’s loneliness and solitude were relieved with the birth of a daughter, Clara, whom she idolized, but the expressions of affection were not reciprocated. Clara’s failure to respond to her mother’s oppressive overtures of affection provoked constant ugly scenes with her mother. Whereas María had done all she could to avoid marriage, Clara welcomed the opportunity that would get her away from her mother in Peru and give her the chance to live in Spain.

Following the...