Summary
Summary of Sunstroke and Homesickness
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Asís cannot quiet her conscience
Asís Taboada wakes with a pounding head and welcomes her maid’s explanation: it must be sunstroke. Weather seems easier to blame than herself. Yet her conscience refuses to accept the excuse. A widow proud of her reputation, a loving mother and a woman careful to avoid trouble, she now fears what she will have to confess.
As she rehearses her confession, the story turns backward. Her headache is comic, but her struggle matters: appearances cannot protect her from her own judgment.
Key idea 2
A drawing room argument becomes personal
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Key idea 3
Small choices carry Asís toward adventure
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Key idea 4
The fair loosens her careful restraint
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Key idea 5
Heat and wine turn into waves
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Key idea 6
Her resolve weakens when Pacheco returns
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Key idea 7
Pardo questions the judgment of women
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Key idea 8
A farewell lunch exposes hidden feelings
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Key idea 9
Orderly lives conceal longing and pain
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love Spanish society scenes, witty talk and women's inner lives, and for anyone who has felt the pull of a distant home, or enjoys a story that mixes laughter with real feeling.
What this book is
Sunstroke and Homesickness joins two linked tales by Emilia Pardo Bazán, a Galician novelist who died in 1921. Both are set in the Madrid of the late nineteenth century, and both look at Spaniards who live far from the green north where they were born. The book gives you the pleasure of a sharp social comedy and then the weight of a quieter tragedy.
The first tale follows Asís Taboada, a widowed marquise from Vigo who prides herself on her good name. After a quarrel about Spanish savagery at a duchess's evening gathering, she meets a charming Andalusian named Diego Pacheco. A single feast day, a hot sun and a few glasses of wine put her good name to the test.
The second tale turns to Doña Aurora Pardiñas and her delicate son Rogelio, who live across from the university. A homesick servant girl from Galicia comes to their door, and a household built on love and routine begins to shift. Let us start with the morning after the feast of San Isidro.
In this summary
- 1A widow wakes and faces her conscienceFree
- 2An argument about Spanish savagery
- 3A morning excuse becomes an outing
- 4The fair, the shack and the gypsies
- 5The sea that is not there
- 6Excuses, baths and a visit at night
- 7A commander's theory on a bench
- 8Packing, a last lunch and a quarrel
Key point 1 of 8
A widow wakes and faces her conscience
The book opens with Asís Taboada waking in a Madrid bedroom with a pounding head, a dry mouth and an aching body. Her maid Angela, nicknamed the Devil, brings linden tea and says it must be a sunstroke. Asís agrees, and clings to that explanation, because she would rather blame the weather than herself.
But the first hour after waking is when conscience speaks loudest, and Asís cannot silence it. A stern inner voice reminds her that she has known herself for thirty-two years and that the sun is only an excuse. She has been a model widow, two years in mourning, a loving mother to her little girl, and a woman who meant to keep out of trouble.
She tries to sleep and to pray, but both only deepen her unease. She dreads the day she must confess to Father Urdax, the sharp Jesuit who scolds her even over low-cut dresses and parties in Lent. She cannot imagine finding gentle words for such a matter.
So, lying in the dim room, she begins to compose her confession in her head. The book then goes back to tell what happened. It does so in her own voice, partly softened, as a person tells a story she would rather not admit.
The opening sets the tone for the whole first tale. It is comic, because her headache and her excuses are so human. Yet it is also serious, because a woman who built her life on appearances is now alone with the one witness she cannot dismiss.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why does Asís welcome the explanation that she has sunstroke?
Right. “Asís agrees, and clings to that explanation, because she would rather blame the weather than herself.”Not quite. “Asís agrees, and clings to that explanation, because she would rather blame the weather than herself.”
What does Pardo argue about society’s treatment of women?
Right. “Then he lays out his theory that society treats a single lapse as an unforgivable stain for a woman, though it counts for little in a man.”Not quite. “Then he lays out his theory that society treats a single lapse as an unforgivable stain for a woman, though it counts for little in a man.”
What central tension connects the two tales?
Right. “Sunstroke and Homesickness gives you two portraits of people pulled between what they feel and what society allows.”Not quite. “Sunstroke and Homesickness gives you two portraits of people pulled between what they feel and what society allows.”
Questions about Sunstroke and Homesickness
What is Sunstroke and Homesickness about?
It joins two tales set in Madrid. In the first, a Galician widow is drawn into an affair with an Andalusian charmer after a feast day. In the second, a homesick Galician servant disturbs a mother and her sheltered son.
Who is Esclavitud in Homesickness?
She is a young Galician servant from a priest's household in Vimieiro. She comes to Madrid in mourning, suffers from morriña, or homesickness, and asks to work for a family from her own land.
What does morriña mean?
Morriña is the Galician word for a deep homesickness, a sadness and listlessness that afflicts people far from their native land. In the book, characters describe it as an illness that can be cured only by returning home.
Who is Gabriel Pardo in this book?
He is a Galician artillery commander and friend of Asís. He is eccentric and kind, argues that Spain is savage under its manners, and speaks out against society's harsh judgment of women.
Is the book easy to follow?
Yes, readers find it approachable. The tales have clear plots, lively dialogue and short chapters, and the humor and sharp characters keep the pages turning, from the fair at San Isidro to the family gatherings in Madrid.
