Book description
Mexico's leading poet, essayist, and cultural critic writes of a Mexican poet of another time and another world, the world of seventeenth-century New Spain. His subject is Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the most striking figure in all of Spanish-American colonial literature and one of the great poets of…
Why read it?
3 authors picked Sor Juana as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
The colonial period of Mexico was a mystery to me, so I turned to the ultimate source, this book by Paz. Surprisingly, I found that I did not agree with all of Paz’s conclusions about Sor Juana and the time she lived. He wrote from a male perspective, a middle-aged scholarly male perspective. Sor Juana was a young woman, a distinguished scholar in her own right. Had she written such a history, it would be quite different.
Sadly, there is no such book written from a woman’s perspective, so I invite you to join me in discovering what nuggets of…
From MaryAnn's list on the mystical Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.
It’s an all-too-common crime of a history written by societies victors that brilliant women like Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz are doomed after living a life enriching this world’s literature and thought.
It was rage at this kind of historical injustice which inspired my writing of my book.
Sor Juana’s great poem "First Dream" also inspired me not only in my first novel, but in many of the visual art I did in my 20’s. We even called my daughter Inés, partially in homage to her.
Octavio Paz’s masterpiece that won him the Nobel Prize of Sor…
From Leopoldo's list on reminding us that the past never dies.
Nobel Laureate Paz reveals the life and world of 17th-century savant and mystic Sor Juana Inès de la Cruz. To escape an arranged marriage, she entered a convent, where she accumulated one of the great libraries in the Americas and, with one of the few telescopes, confirmed Copernicus’ helio-centric worldview, which threatened the hierarchal Christian Church. Although not burned at the stake, like Bruno, she, too, was martyred by being silenced and having her books destroyed, still another terrible punishment.
From Marjorie's list on women's spiritual journeys.
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A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
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