The Story Archive

The Besieged City

Clarice Lispector · 1949 CE · Novel · Latin American · Contemporary

Lucrécia Neves lives in São Geraldo, a suburb of dirt roads and loose horses turning into a city around her, and seems to exist chiefly by looking at things until they are confirmed. She takes suitors, marries a man with money, moves to the capital and comes back to a place that has finished changing. Written abroad during Lispector's years as a diplomat's wife, it drew her coldest reception and is still the least read of her novels.

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Attributes

Genre
Psychological
Theme
Identity & SelfVanity & BeautyIsolation & AlienationNature vs Civilization
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
HeroineEveryman
Plot structure
MeditationExile and Return
Symbol / motif
The CityThe MirrorThe Beast
Conflict
vs Selfvs Society
Mode / tone
ModernistLyrical
Culture / tradition
Latin American

Closest analogues