71 pages • 2 hours read
Mario Vargas LlosaA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
At supper, Urania notices how different her Aunt Adelina appears: “bent, almost bald […] her face puckered into a thousand wrinkles, dentures that shift when she eats or speaks” (192). Urania sees her niece Marianita, whom she has never met, watching her carefully, and she wonders what her niece has heard. Urania’s aunt and cousins reinforce the belief that Urania’s father recognizes her and feels happy to see her, even if Urania cannot tell. Lucinda complains that the family’s fortunes began to change when Trujillo died, but Adelina says that their troubles started earlier, with the letter in “The Public Forum” denouncing Agustín.
The narrative begins shifting between the present and the time of the letter’s publication. Agustín’s brother-in-law originally informed him of the letter via telephone and assured him it was probably just a mistake. Agustín suspected the letter was a trap of some kind, though he, too, was not unnerved by its appearance, as “it was the first time he had appeared in the infernal column” (193). The letter—signed by a Telésforo Hidalgo Saíno, but certainly written by a high-ranking government official, if not Trujillo himself—accused Agustín of corruption during his time as the Minister of Public Works.
By Mario Vargas Llosa
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
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Death In The Andes
Death In The Andes
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The Discreet Hero
The Discreet Hero
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The Time of the Hero
The Time of the Hero
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The War of the End of the World
The War of the End of the World
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