Ifigenia : Diario de una senorita que escribio porque se Fastidiaba

Ifigenia, or ¿diary of a young lady who wrote because she was bored¿ (1924) confirms beyond any doubts that its author, Teresa de la Parra (París 1989-Madrid 1936) ranks along the great modern novelists. Teresa de la Parra mingled with the avant garde, but she used the Nineteenth Century basic narrative rules to describe a modern conflict: women¿s need for economic and intellectual independence. In doing so de la Parra found the gem every writer dreams of: a unique and unmistakable style. Ifigenia is one of the most convincing, intelligent and seductive novels written in Spanish. The main character and narrator, Eugenia, a strongly biased and colorful witness, tells her own story to a confident-reader in an unparalleled fresh and full of authenticity tone of voice. The narration, subtly along the pages, becomes a witty meditation on human nature, as well as a mesmerizing tour into the feminine universe. To mature means to partly die. The title hints sacrifice. To join the social order is to become a sacrificial victim, true, but the voice we listen ¿so cultivated and ¿social¿¿ proves that everything needs to be reconsidered. The novel itself becomes part of this renewal, and paradoxically it does so by abiding to the same rules that suffocate the main character. In this edition prof. Elizabeth Garrels¿ (MIT) critical foreword and notes focus in theses qualities, and highlight how, through a clever and talented kind of social critique, Ifigenia stands up as a truly classical book.