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Las Honradas
This Cuban novel explores the theme of sexuality, unfolding with abundant luxuries and intimacies. Endowed with a strong psychological realism, Miguel de Carrion narrates the insatiable process of seduction that grows more pleasurable and intense the closer it comes towards the conquest of love, contempt, and dissidence.
Se trata de una novela en cuyo ambiente de cubanidad inmediata se situaba un tema de la sexual cotidiano, desenvuelto con lujo de intimidades y con amena abundancia. Dotado de fuerte realismo psicológico, narra el implacable proceso de una seducción que es tanto más placentera cuanto más se acerca a la conquista amorosa, al desacato y la disidencia.
Se trata de una novela en cuyo ambiente de cubanidad inmediata se situaba un tema de la sexual cotidiano, desenvuelto con lujo de intimidades y con amena abundancia. Dotado de fuerte realismo psicológico, narra el implacable proceso de una seducción que es tanto más placentera cuanto más se acerca a la conquista amorosa, al desacato y la disidencia.
505 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 27, 2012
One half of a remarkable study of Cuban women from the period of the Cuban war of liberation (circa 1895) to the middle of WWI, Honourable Women (Las honradas) was written by a male writer, Miguel de Carrion, who then went onto explore the other side of his subject in his next novel Las impuras in 1919.
I was keen to find out what had happened to Cuba between its liberation from Spain in 1895 to its embracing Communism in 1959. What had driven this country like an honourable woman from one suitor to the other? Alas that was not to be found, for this is a very domestic story surrounding the landowner class who seemed to prosper in the post independence period, embroiled in their petty-bourgeoisie conflicts. The only reference I had to Cuba’s political reality was the line, “they (foreign sugar companies) own everything, the land and the industry. We willingly abandoned it on condition that they left us politics and public appointments, which means the path to fraud and a life of very little work.”
This then is not the political story of Cuba, but a portrait of a class of its citizenry. Victoria is a sheltered young woman of a wealthy landowning family, who has to fall from grace in order to understand the value of her honour and reclaim her sense of self. Surrounding Victoria are the others in her limited circle: her sister Alicia, married to a villainous businessman with mistresses in every corner, who is rendered barren from a sexually transmitted illness gifted by her husband; the childless Graciela, Victoria’s friend, who knows how to extract what she wants from men and ascribe to them their true value, nothing more. There are in-laws and unmarried aunts and parents, locked into the choices they made at the flowering stages of their lives, floating in and out of the narrative; after awhile they all begin grow on you. This is not a dramatically fabricated story, for the events are mundane – a family luncheon goes on for 26 pages, a wedding for a whole chapter – and so one gets a sense of what life must have been for an honourable woman of the landed gentry during that time.
The author is skilful in evoking the world of the sheltered gentlewoman, one of gossip, shopping, chastity before marriage, dress, being courted, sewing, domestic chores and secrets. There are detailed descriptions of hysterectomies and abortions. The men are weak and not very bright, allowed to drink, have affairs, make money and demand unwavering fealty from their wives. Both sexes are deemed “old” if they are not married by age 30. Told from Victoria’s point of view, we see her world as a narrow but unexplored prison. She is sexually frigid and uncomfortable at looking upon herself unless clothed; she withdraws from her loyal but violently passionate husband’s advances and considers sex “dirty.”The author provides a statistic that three-quarters of married women do not experience satisfaction in intimacy, making the newly-married Victoria a representation of the malaise facing the majority of honourable women of her time.
Then her life suddenly takes a sharp turn when she is sexually awakened by an older man, her husband’s boss, who takes his time in the “dance” to seduce her, make her pregnant and leave abruptly. Her fall from grace, the subsequent abortion that has to be kept secret to save her honour, all go towards making Victoria aware of where her true loyalties should lie, with the man who stands by her during her long return from the abyss, himself unaware of her “illness.” She finally falls in love with her husband and returns to him, a sexually responsive woman, much to his delight.
The lessons abound: honourable women need to be conquered even after they say “I do” for them to feel possessed and to respond spontaneously. They must also be the most important of their husbands’ mistresses. The honourable woman must protect herself against passion and yet clear up the damage discretely. The perfect wife must be the archive of her husband’s memory, his secretary, nurse, admirer, pupil, and the maternal figure to protect him with her solicitude. Much is expected of the honourable woman, with very little in return.
Despite this authoritative and immersed inner view on the world of women, de Carrion digresses and the reader occasionally gets the opinion of an older male intellectual speaking through Victoria. The last chapter is a diatribe on the state of mankind in the aftermath of the Great War – not sure where that fits in – a contrasting long term view on where humanity is headed perhaps, and a welcome respite from the insular world of Victoria.
In the end, an enlightened and older Victoria, pregnant with her second child (both from her husband, thank God!) ponders the future of the next generation of honourable women – will they be slaves like Alicia or avengers like Graciela? Victoria, who has visited both extremes and understands their limitations, is left floating in a safe middle ground.
I was keen to find out what had happened to Cuba between its liberation from Spain in 1895 to its embracing Communism in 1959. What had driven this country like an honourable woman from one suitor to the other? Alas that was not to be found, for this is a very domestic story surrounding the landowner class who seemed to prosper in the post independence period, embroiled in their petty-bourgeoisie conflicts. The only reference I had to Cuba’s political reality was the line, “they (foreign sugar companies) own everything, the land and the industry. We willingly abandoned it on condition that they left us politics and public appointments, which means the path to fraud and a life of very little work.”
This then is not the political story of Cuba, but a portrait of a class of its citizenry. Victoria is a sheltered young woman of a wealthy landowning family, who has to fall from grace in order to understand the value of her honour and reclaim her sense of self. Surrounding Victoria are the others in her limited circle: her sister Alicia, married to a villainous businessman with mistresses in every corner, who is rendered barren from a sexually transmitted illness gifted by her husband; the childless Graciela, Victoria’s friend, who knows how to extract what she wants from men and ascribe to them their true value, nothing more. There are in-laws and unmarried aunts and parents, locked into the choices they made at the flowering stages of their lives, floating in and out of the narrative; after awhile they all begin grow on you. This is not a dramatically fabricated story, for the events are mundane – a family luncheon goes on for 26 pages, a wedding for a whole chapter – and so one gets a sense of what life must have been for an honourable woman of the landed gentry during that time.
The author is skilful in evoking the world of the sheltered gentlewoman, one of gossip, shopping, chastity before marriage, dress, being courted, sewing, domestic chores and secrets. There are detailed descriptions of hysterectomies and abortions. The men are weak and not very bright, allowed to drink, have affairs, make money and demand unwavering fealty from their wives. Both sexes are deemed “old” if they are not married by age 30. Told from Victoria’s point of view, we see her world as a narrow but unexplored prison. She is sexually frigid and uncomfortable at looking upon herself unless clothed; she withdraws from her loyal but violently passionate husband’s advances and considers sex “dirty.”The author provides a statistic that three-quarters of married women do not experience satisfaction in intimacy, making the newly-married Victoria a representation of the malaise facing the majority of honourable women of her time.
Then her life suddenly takes a sharp turn when she is sexually awakened by an older man, her husband’s boss, who takes his time in the “dance” to seduce her, make her pregnant and leave abruptly. Her fall from grace, the subsequent abortion that has to be kept secret to save her honour, all go towards making Victoria aware of where her true loyalties should lie, with the man who stands by her during her long return from the abyss, himself unaware of her “illness.” She finally falls in love with her husband and returns to him, a sexually responsive woman, much to his delight.
The lessons abound: honourable women need to be conquered even after they say “I do” for them to feel possessed and to respond spontaneously. They must also be the most important of their husbands’ mistresses. The honourable woman must protect herself against passion and yet clear up the damage discretely. The perfect wife must be the archive of her husband’s memory, his secretary, nurse, admirer, pupil, and the maternal figure to protect him with her solicitude. Much is expected of the honourable woman, with very little in return.
Despite this authoritative and immersed inner view on the world of women, de Carrion digresses and the reader occasionally gets the opinion of an older male intellectual speaking through Victoria. The last chapter is a diatribe on the state of mankind in the aftermath of the Great War – not sure where that fits in – a contrasting long term view on where humanity is headed perhaps, and a welcome respite from the insular world of Victoria.
In the end, an enlightened and older Victoria, pregnant with her second child (both from her husband, thank God!) ponders the future of the next generation of honourable women – will they be slaves like Alicia or avengers like Graciela? Victoria, who has visited both extremes and understands their limitations, is left floating in a safe middle ground.
October 16, 2022
Este libro me gustó. Es un libro adelantado para su época, lo considero feminista. Y me llegó, Victoria (la protagonista) y yo, vivimos experiencias similares. Le hice muchas notas al libro.
May 13, 2024
En los últimos años me he dado a la tarea de leer más literatura latinoamericana, desde novelas del Boom, pasando por clásicos de la literatura en español, hasta autores contemporáneos. Si bien, apenas he rasguñado la punta de este mundo tan variado, puedo considerar la obra de Carrión una de las mejores que he leído en español.
Con el telón de fondo de una Cuba convulsa, del régimen español, la guerra y el protectorado estadounidense; conocemos la vida de Victoria y su relación con la sexualidad. Criada en un ambiente conservador y cristiano, su vida sumida en contradicciones discursivas y morales la enfrentan a un sinfín de reflexiones sobre la familia, el sexo, el amor y la pasión.
Una curiosa antesala para obras profundamente feministas en el siglo XX, la novela de Carrión nos permite empatizar con la situación de una mujer en una sociedad cambiante, donde los valores tradicionales se ven en conflicto con las mentalidades liberales traídas por la influencia yankee.
¿Qué siente una mujer, criada bajo los valores cristianos de abstinencia y repudio a la sexualidad, en su noche de bodas cuando debe entregarse a su marido? ¿Por qué se te obliga a practicar algo que el mundo entero te enseño a despreciar, solo porque es tu deber como mujer? Son preguntas que surgen al pasar de las páginas y nos permiten reflexionar sobre la contradicción de la moral conservadora.
Un libro imperdible para conocer más de Cuba, la mujer y el siglo XX.
Con el telón de fondo de una Cuba convulsa, del régimen español, la guerra y el protectorado estadounidense; conocemos la vida de Victoria y su relación con la sexualidad. Criada en un ambiente conservador y cristiano, su vida sumida en contradicciones discursivas y morales la enfrentan a un sinfín de reflexiones sobre la familia, el sexo, el amor y la pasión.
Una curiosa antesala para obras profundamente feministas en el siglo XX, la novela de Carrión nos permite empatizar con la situación de una mujer en una sociedad cambiante, donde los valores tradicionales se ven en conflicto con las mentalidades liberales traídas por la influencia yankee.
¿Qué siente una mujer, criada bajo los valores cristianos de abstinencia y repudio a la sexualidad, en su noche de bodas cuando debe entregarse a su marido? ¿Por qué se te obliga a practicar algo que el mundo entero te enseño a despreciar, solo porque es tu deber como mujer? Son preguntas que surgen al pasar de las páginas y nos permiten reflexionar sobre la contradicción de la moral conservadora.
Un libro imperdible para conocer más de Cuba, la mujer y el siglo XX.
June 4, 2018
It is a so impassioned love, that even the ensign has erotic readings, a book is fabulous, to Cuba in the years 30, 40, and it is a book of easy reading, a fabulous author, and entertains so much so that it is read of a passage.
September 6, 2024
Muy interesante ver la vida de las mujeres CUBANAS de los años 1897 en adelante, como cambiaron los valores, las relaciones, las vestimentas, las formas de pensar y actuar de las mujeres. Como actuaban los hombres de la época. Ellos podián hacer lo que querían sin ser juzgados mal. Mientras que las mujeres tenían que vivir una vida miserable o ser juzgadas de impuros por hacer las mismas cosas que hacían los hombres.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews