This book is the first comprehensive study of Teresa de la Parra for English-speaking readers. The volume includes a biographical chapter and analyses of de la Parra's two novels, Iphigenia: the diary of a young lady who wrote because she was bored and Mama Blanca's Memoirs. An annotated version of the Three Colombian Lectures: Women's Influence in the Formation of the American Soul reveals the importance of Latin American women's contributions in Latin American history and speaks to gender issues sparked by critical reactions to Iphigenia. Translations of de la Parra's selected letters, short stories, and entries from the "Bellevue-Fuenfria-Madrid Diary" provide a more complete picture of the writer and help tie her works to her life. The book reviews literary criticism on de la Parra, providing an overview of what Venezuelan, Latin American and American critics and biographers have to say about the author and her works. De la Parra bridged the gap between Venezuelan and European traditions, and this book examines the author's contribution to Venezuelan and Latin American literary traditions while showcasing her as a model of Latin American women's writing whose influence is being rediscovered and reevaluated. As RoseAnna Mueller tells us in her Preface, she happened upon Teresa de la Parra's work quite by chance, something that is common to all of us who work with literature. Just as it happens to many of us, Mueller became enchanted by de la Parra's work, and included it in her syllabus.

But Mueller went further ahead, making De la Parra's writings a subject of serious study, and the result is this book. For any person interested in becoming better acquainted with the literature of Latin America, this book is a must read: it brings an in-depth, careful reading of one of the most interesting and most original thinkers of the last hundred years. Through Teresa de la Parra's lenses, as Mueller presents them, the reader will see how gender, race, and class are interwoven in the history of Venezuela and, by extension, of the whole continent.