Book Aura by Carlos Fuentes: summary and analysis

What does the book mean Aura from Carlos Fuentes:

Aura is a fantasy novel of Gothic inspiration, authored by the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, which was published in 1962. It is considered one of the best works of the author.

Aura is a short novel that tells the story of Felipe Montero, a young historian who is hired by Doña Consuelo, widow of General Llorente, to order and finish writing the memoirs of her deceased husband. The condition is that he must live in his house, a mysterious place that remains in darkness to avoid the memory of the general.

In this house, Felipe will meet Aura, an enigmatic young woman, Doña Consuelo's niece, who is in charge of help the old woman with the housework, and for which Felipe will feel a particular attraction. The strange relationship between the old woman and the young woman, however, will lead him to think that her old woman is holding her niece as a prisoner, so Felipe will feel obliged to free her from her. Later, however, he discovers that Aura's dependence on Doña Consuelo is beyond belief.

Analysis and summary of Aura

Aura is a Gothic fantasy novel, set in Mexico City in 1961. It tells the story of Felipe Montero, a young historian who will be entrusted with the task of ordering and finishing writing the general's memoirs Llorente on the part of Doña Consuelo, her widow, on the condition that he must live in the house together with her and her niece, Aura, while he performs the job.

The house is strange for Felipe: it is permanently dark so as not to stir up the memory of the deceased general, barely lit by candlelight, and with antique furniture and decoration, as if time had not been in the house past. This atmosphere is reminiscent of Gothic novels, where darkness predominates and there is a constant feeling that the border between the real and the fantastic is about to be blurred.

On his part, the work of reading and ordering the general's manuscripts, written in French, will lead Felipe not only to explore the ins and outs of life Mexican politics of the nineteenth century, but also to know, first-hand, the history of his infatuation with Doña Consuelo and the gradual process of deterioration of the woman.

Doña Consuelo, unable to conceive children for the general, in her guilty feeling, begins to experiment with a series of magical rituals reminiscent of witchcraft practices (raises rabbits and cats, sacrifices male goats, feeds only on viscera, lives with mice, etc.), which contrasts with the image offered to Felipe: that of an old woman very devoted to the Catholicism.

But Felipe begins to realize that the way Doña Consuelo and Aura behave is out of the ordinary. The old woman and the niece have a strange relationship in which Doña Consuelo has the power to control what she does and says Aura, her gestures and movements

And Felipe has fallen in love with Aura, and in the idea that the young woman is a prisoner of the old woman, he proposes to free her from her, but she is she denies, and in the last of their two love affairs she realizes that the old and the young are the same person, as if the old woman would have developed a magical power to control Aura in order to be able to conceive her child that she could not give to the general. At that point, Felipe will realize that he has also assumed the person of the general, just as Aura has transformed into Doña Consuelo in her youth.

Space

The narration takes place in an urban space. At first, the main character moves between cafes, public transport and congested avenues, typical of large cities. Then he enters Doña Consuelo's house and, from then on, the atmosphere is predominantly domestic.

However, it is not a typical house: it is a house that remains dark, where the lighting still depends on the fire, as if time had stopped in the 19th century. The decor and furniture are indeed old. The reason the old woman and her niece live in this darkness is so as not to awaken the memories of the late general.

Affair

It tells the story of a young historian, Felipe Montero, who is hired by the widow of a Mexican general to finish writing and ordering her husband's memoirs for her publication. To carry out the work, he will have to live in Doña Consuelo's house, where he will meet her niece, an enigmatic young woman named Aura, with whom Felipe falls in love.

Storyteller

It is narrated in the second person singular. The voice, as such, addresses the main character, Felipe Montero, giving the impression that it is addressed to him and that it leads him throughout the story.

Structure and time

It is structured in five chapters throughout which the succession of findings and discoveries that Felipe Montero accesses during his stay in the enigmatic house of doña Comfort. Time, for its part, also has a linear development, interrupted only, perhaps, by evocations to the past that Felipe makes through the stories and photographs of the general Llorente.

Style

As is typical of the novel genre, a narrative style enriched by descriptive passages that show us not only how is the environment where the events take place, but also the characters and their physical characteristics and spiritual. It uses a cultured, literary vocabulary. The fragments in French that the author has introduced to give credibility to the work stand out, since the general's manuscripts have been originally written in this language.

Characters

Felipe Montero

Felipe Montero is the main character in the story. He is a young historian and assistant professor with knowledge of the French language. He plans to write a play on the Spanish discoveries and conquests in America. He goes to the house of Mrs. Consuelo, General Llorente's widow, thanks to an advertisement in the newspaper for a job for which he is fully qualified. As the story goes by, she understands that she has become the personification of General Llorente.

Consuelo Llorente

She is an elderly woman, the widow of General Llorente, a Mexican military man who, when he died, left unfinished memories of him. She hires Felipe Montero to be in charge of completing and publishing the general's work. She married at 15 and her husband died when she was 49, sixty years ago. Felipe Montero estimates that the old woman, with wrinkled skin and white hair, small and with a weak and high voice, is about 109 years old. She is a devoted woman who is supported by her niece Aura hers. Her great frustration is that she has not been able to give her husband children.

Aura

Aura is the enigmatic character that gives the work its title. She is the niece of Consuelo Llorente. She lives with her aunt to support her with housework. She is quiet and shy. She captivates Felipe Montero, to the point that he falls in love with her and tries to take her away from Mrs. Consuelo's house. Her aura, however, acts strangely, like mechanically, which catches Felipe's attention. With the passing of history we will understand that Aura is a personification of young Doña Consuelo.

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About Carlos Fuentes

Carlos Fuentes was born in Panama in 1928. He was a Mexican writer, intellectual, and diplomat. He is considered one of the most prominent Mexican and Latin American writers of recent times. He belonged to the Boom of Latin American literature. She received the most important awards for her outstanding literary work, such as the Rómulo Gallegos Novel Prize (1977), the Cervantes Prize (1987) and the Prince of Asturias (1994). He is the author of novels like The most transparent region (1958), The death of Artemio Cruz (1962), Aura (1962), Change of skin (1967) or Terra nostra (1975).