21 h 22 minAudiobook7 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 happens to love in a city where skin color and money decide who belongs?
In colonial Havana, Cecilia Valdés wants a better life than her birth seems to allow. Beautiful, proud, and of mixed race, she forms a bond with Leonardo Gamboa, the spoiled white son of a wealthy family. Their desires run against a social order that sets firm limits on whom they may love.
Cirilo Villaverde places their story inside a city whose sugar wealth rests on enslaved labor. Leonardo’s father, Cándido Gamboa, guards a fortune tied to the slave trade, while his mother, Rosa, wants a proper marriage for her son. Around them, families, servants, suitors, and rivals reveal how private hopes meet public rules.
What you’ll discover
- A woman between worlds Follow Cecilia’s ambition as beauty and desire meet the barriers of parentage and color.
- Love under pressure Watch Cecilia and Leonardo’s bond strain against family expectations and Havana’s strict social ranks.
- Wealth and its foundations Look behind the Gamboa household’s comfort to the slave trade that helps sustain it.
- A city in detail Walk through Havana’s streets and customs with a narrator who pauses to examine its people.
- The limits of talent Meet José Dolores Pimienta, a skilled man who knows the boundaries imposed on him.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy sweeping historical fiction, tangled families, forbidden romance, and vivid pictures of Caribbean city life, music, dress and the sugar world of old Cuba.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A baby sent through the foundling hatch
- A beautiful street girl grows up unguarded
- A dance where color and class collide
- The Gamboa house and the price of its wealth
- Havana shown from its tailor shops and ballrooms
- Jealousy, schemes and a fight in the dark
- Christmas at the sugar mill of La Tinaja
- A grandmother fears for two generations
- What the novel is really about, and how it is told
Who’s who
- Cecilia ValdésA strikingly beautiful, proud young woman of mixed race who longs to rise through the love of a white man.
- Leonardo GamboaThe spoiled, handsome son of a rich Spanish merchant, torn between his passion for Cecilia and his duty to marry well.
- Don Cándido GamboaA self-made slave trader who craves a noble title and secretly shapes the lives of two women.
- Doña RosaLeonardo's proud, indulgent mother, whose jealousy of her husband drives her own schemes.
- Isabel IlinchetaA thoughtful planter's daughter who manages her father's coffee estate and hopes to marry Leonardo.
- José Dolores PimientaA gentle mulatto clarinet player and tailor who loves Cecilia faithfully, though she does not love him.
- NemesiaPimienta's sister and Cecilia's friend, who secretly loves Leonardo and plots to part the lovers.
- María de ReglaAn enslaved nurse, exiled to the sugar mill for loving her own child, who knows the secret of Cecilia's birth.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 21 h 22 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Cecilia Valdés, or The Angel's Hill in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Cecilia Valdés, or The Angel's Hill
by Cirilo Villaverde · 1839
In 1812 Havana, a newborn passes through a foundling hatch, and her beauty will one day tangle two families.
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In short
In 1812 Havana, a baby girl is passed through a hatch at the Royal Foundling Home so she can carry a respectable name. Cirilo Villaverde, a Cuban writer who finished this novel in exile, follows her into a beautiful, restless youth.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A baby sent through the foundling hatch
The novel opens at dusk in November 1812. A tall gentleman leaves a closed carriage on San Juan de Dios Alley in Havana and taps at a small house. A mulatto woman named Josefa lets him in and tells him that her young daughter Charo is dying of grief, because her newborn girl has been taken away.
In the back room, the feverish mother wakes in terror, sure that the Virgin is carrying her child to heaven. When she sees the stranger, she calls him a thief and an executioner. He does not defend himself. He takes her pulse like a doctor, orders broth and ether, and promises she will see her daughter tomorrow.
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What is Cecilia Valdés about?
It follows Cecilia, a beautiful young woman of mixed race in 1830s Havana, and her love for Leonardo Gamboa, the son of a rich slave trader. Family secrets, class and slavery shape every step.
Is Cecilia Valdés based on a true story?
It is fiction, but the author says he drew many characters from real people and kept real names. Historical figures such as Captain General Vives and the officer Tondá also appear.
Who is Cecilia Valdés's father?
Cecilia does not know who her father is. A powerful white man arranges her baptism and support from the shadows.
The author
Cirilo Villaverde
1812–1894 · Cuban novelist
Cirilo Villaverde (1812–1894) was a Cuban writer. He was born in San Diego de Núñez, Cuba, and died in New York City. He lived in Cuba and the United States. His novel Cecilia Valdés appeared in an early version in 1839 and in an expanded version in 1882.
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