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Synopsis
This novel reconstructs an actual murder case which took place in Spain in 1933, when Aurora Rodriguez felt compelled to kill her daughter. The child was reared to be a trail-blazer for her time, breaking all the conventions which her mother hated, but when she reached 18, her mother, "after careful consideration" shot her. Erich Hackl was winner of the 1987 Aspekte Literatur Preis in Germany with this novel.
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Language Notes
Text: English, German (translation)
From Publishers Weekly
"One day Aurora Rodriguez was compelled to kill her daughter," begins this quietly horrifying novel based on the true story of a 1931 Spanish murder. Aurora Rodriguez was a radical product of bourgeois Spanish society who projected her political ideologies onto the daughter she conceived by pre-arrangement with a renegade priest. Hildegart, born in Madrid in 1914, was created in her mother's image and raised according to avant-garde theories. By age 14 she was a prodigy studying law at Madrid University. She appeared to be living out her mother's aspirations as she campaigned for the Spanish Republic, sexual freedom and socialist causes. But at age 17, she began a passionate affair with H. G. Wells. Torn between lust and her political destiny, Hildegart turned to her mother in desperation. "She, Aurora, had created Hildegart; it was up to her now to sacrifice her work that had failed." And so, like Dr. Frankenstein, Aurora does. Hackl, an Austrian journalist and critic, has brought this strange story to a kind of half-life. The deadpan languageperhaps exaggerated in translationpresents a two-dimensional dramatic narrative. Distanced as we are from the characters, there is no frisson of In Cold Blood reality to this fictional accounting.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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- PublisherCape, Jonathan
- Publication date1989
- ISBN 10 0224025848
- ISBN 13 9780224025843
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Rating
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Aurora's Motive
Published by
Jonathan Cape Limited, London, 1989
ISBN 10: 0224025848
ISBN 13: 9780224025843
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: PsychoBabel & Skoob Books, Didcot, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Translated Edition. First translated edition hardcover with unclipped dust jacket, in very good condition. Jacket is a little scuffed. Edges are creased, with a few small light marks on both sides of the edges. Page block is lightly blemished. Boards are clean, binding is sound and pages are clear. LW. Used. Seller Inventory # 548719
Quantity: 1 available
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AURORA'S MOTIVE
Seller: Loretta Lay Books, London, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover / Hardback. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Hardback. Tr. from the German by Edna McCown. A novel in which the author reconstructs this actual, much publicised murder case with a combination of meticulous research and imaginative flair. In June 1933 Aurora Rodriguez was compelled to kill a child she brought into the world to overcome the barriers of social conventions and so transform the situation of her sex. Aurora found a priest, healthy in mind and body, who was prepared to father the child and disappear from her life for ever. She became pregnant, moved to Madrid and, in 1914, gave birth to a girl whom she named Hildegart - 'garden of wisdom'. From the outset, Aurora cultivated Hildegart as a prodigy. She walked before her first birthday, typed at two, and, in her early teens, took a university degree and became a public figure and writer advocating equal rights for women, birth control and sexual freedom. Then Hildegart demanded her independence. But, increasingly tortured and confused in her relationship with Aurora, her spirit was broken and she begged her mother to release her. Aurora agreed. At her death, Hildegart was 18yrs. old. A controversial story that encapsulates the devasting consequence of attempting to create a human ideal. 117pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in vg+ dw. Seller Inventory # 14769
Quantity: 1 available