The Spanish Daughter

From Ramona, Angélica’s pet bird, to Lola, Juan’s snake, animals have a role in the narrative. How do they affect the novel’s themes and plot?

Chess is an old game and was a metaphor for a well-ordered society in the Middle Ages. Chess has meaning for the plantation as well. How does chess work as a metaphor for the intrigue inside and outside the hacienda?

“Clothes make the man” is an old adage. How do the depictions of clothing in The Spanish Daughter reflect its themes?

The novel incorporates various Spanish words and phrases—what is their effect?

Motherhood and pregnancy are important topics in the novel. How do they intersect with the novel’s treatment of grief?

The novel is haunted by figures the reader never meets or hears from directly. From Armand and Puri’s mother to Martin’s father, how do these spectral figures function?

Puri’s relationship with Cristóbal changes throughout the novel as she remembers and mourns for him. Describe their marriage. How does it compare to the other marriages Hughes depicts in the novel?

Puri is the main narrator, but Angélica and Catalina also narrate flashbacks. How do they compare as narrators? What effect do these alternating narrators and timelines create, and how would the story change if told linearly?