9 h 19 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a gentle man change in a house where fear carries more weight than faith?
In Emilia Pardo Bazán’s The House of Ulloa, young priest Julián Álvarez arrives at a decaying manor in rural Galicia. He hopes to bring order and decency. But Don Pedro Moscoso, the Marquis of Ulloa, carries the title while his quiet, shrewd steward Primitivo controls the land, the tenants and the money.
Julián sees a household ruled by habit and appetite, and believes marriage might steady the Marquis. Nucha hopes for the shelter of a calm home, but Ulloa offers cold rooms and people who resist change. Beyond its walls, landowners, lawyers and stewards trade favors, making private struggles part of a wider world of influence.
What you’ll discover
- A house that rules Enter a decaying Galician manor where the surroundings shape the lives within its walls.
- Power behind the title Watch Primitivo hold practical control while the proud Marquis struggles to govern his own household.
- Good intentions under pressure Follow Julián as his sincere hopes meet habits that resist both counsel and correction.
- A home without shelter Feel the distance between Nucha’s hope for peace and the hard household she enters.
- The reach of influence See how favors and local power shape a district where elections offer little real choice.
Who will love it
For readers who love richly observed novels about Spain and the countryside, where a place shapes its people. Readers drawn to struggles over power, faith and good intentions will find much to explore.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A shy priest rides to a ruined manor
- The real master is the steward
- Faith meets habit and appetite
- A plan to rescue Don Pedro
- A gentle bride enters a hard house
- Power, nature and the way it is told
Who’s who
- Julián ÁlvarezA shy, sincere young priest sent to the manor, who hopes to bring order and decency to a household that resists both.
- Don Pedro MoscosoThe Marquis of Ulloa, a hunter and country gentleman, proud of his name and poorly prepared to run his own house.
- PrimitivoThe steward of the estate, shrewd and quiet, who holds the practical power over the land and the tenants.
- NuchaA gentle, well brought up young woman of the Marquis's family, who hopes for a calm home and finds a hard one.
- SabelThe steward's daughter, who works in the manor, and whose place in the household is bound up with its secrets.
- PeruchoA child growing up in the manor among its adults, watching a world he cannot yet understand.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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La Maison d’Ulloa
by Emilia Pardo Bazán · 1886
A young priest enters a decaying Galician manor, where a steward's power tests his hopes of bringing decency.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The House of Ulloa is a novel by Emilia Pardo Bazán, a writer from Galicia, the green and rainy corner of north-west Spain. It appeared in the 1880s, when she was arguing in print for a new kind of fiction that looked at poverty, instinct and the force of the surroundings on people.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A shy priest rides to a ruined manor
The novel opens with Julián, a young priest, making his way toward the pazo of Ulloa. He is not a bold man. He is quiet, earnest and a little anxious, and he has been trained in the city for a life of books and prayer. He has been chosen to serve the lord of the manor as chaplain and to help with the accounts of the estate.
As he travels, the reader meets the landscape of Galicia, with its damp air, its stone walls and its small farms. Pardo Bazán describes it with care, as a real place that presses on everyone who lives there. The manor itself is a large old house with a proud name, but it is worn down by neglect. Its grandeur belongs to the past, and the present is damp, dim and rough.
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What is The House of Ulloa about?
It tells of a young priest sent to serve a rural landowner in Galicia. He finds a decaying manor run by custom and by a clever steward, and tries to improve things through kindness and a hopeful marriage.
Who is the steward Primitivo in The House of Ulloa?
Primitivo is the manager of the estate. He knows the tenants, the debts and the land, and holds more real power than the Marquis. The novel uses him to show how rank and control can differ.
What is a pazo in Galician?
A pazo is a Galician manor house, usually a large stone country home belonging to a landowning family. In the novel the pazo stands for an old order that is worn down but still powerful.
The author
Emilia Pardo Bazán
1851–1921 · Spanish novelist and essayist
Emilia Pardo Bazán was a Spanish novelist, short-story writer and editor. She was born in A Coruña in 1851 and died in Madrid in 1921. She wrote The House of Ulloa, published in 1886, and Mother Nature, published in 1887. She lived in Galicia and Madrid.
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