Cabello de Carbonero, Mercedes

Mercedes Cabello was born in a wealthy family. Her father and uncle traveled a lot and brought in 1830 a well-preserved library from France. Mercedes Cabello studied French independently and with the help of home teachers, which subsequently contributed to the fact that she could quickly get acquainted with book novelties from France. At the age of 20, she moved to Lima, where she became a member of the literary salon.

In 1867, she married Dr. Urbano de Carbonero, who had private practice in Lima, her husband was a gambler , so their marriage was childless and unhappy. They later parted.

Mercedes made its debut with a series of articles on the status of women, in which she very clearly noted the subordinate position of women in society at that time, regardless of which class they belonged to.

In 1900, due to depression , delusional melancholy, and after trying to set fire to the house in which she lived with her brother, she ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

She died in a hospital 9 years later, on October 12, 1909, from a mental disorder (it is believed that she contracted syphilis from her husband and her mental illness was a consequence of this).

Mercedes Cabello de Carbonero is the author of 6 novels, of which Blanca Sol (1888), Consequences (1890) and The Conspirator (1892) were the most successful. She also wrote numerous articles and essays on literary and social topics, speaking, in particular, for the emancipation of women. Remaining incomprehensible and attacked by male authors, she ended her days in a psychiatric hospital.

The main theme of the writer's works is Lima , her political and social life. A champion of female emancipation, brought up on the ideas of positivist philosophy , Mercedes Cabello in the history of Peruvian literature is considered the initiator of critical realism .

Having made corruption and the ruin of the upper classes (Blanca Sol and Consequences novels) the theme, the writer, according to Tamayo Vargas, “wanted to create realistic literature in (Latin) America, but she fought for realism, being dominated by a sentimental outlook on life and, most importantly, very strict moral rules. ”

Mercedes Cabello's novels, short stories, and literary and feminist essays show a wide variety of sympathies and influences, but above all the influence of the French classics - Balzac and Flaubert , Dode and Zola . Peru of this advanced woman of her time also owns a lengthy essay on the work and philosophical views of Leo Tolstoy , who, according to the testimony of critics, also had a certain influence on her. An important point in assessing the public and aesthetic views of the writer is her consistent approach to the word of art as an instrument for transforming society and an instrument of political struggle.

• Sacrificio y recompensa (Lima, 1886, Ateneo de Lima Gold Medal)
• Eleodora (Madrid, 1887)
• Los amores de Hortensia (1886 and 1887)
• Blanca Sol (novela social) (1888, 1889 and 1894)
• Las consecuencias (1890)
• El conspirador (autobiography) (1892 and 1898)

Essays

• Influencia de las Bellas Letras en el progreso moral y material de los pueblos (1887)
• La novela realista
• La novela moderna (1892, Golden Rose Award)
• Estudio comparativo de la inteligencia y la belleza de la mujer
• Perfeccionamiento de la educación y la condición social de la mujer
• La religión de la humanidad (1893)
• El conde León Tolstoi (1894)

• 1892 - Golden Rose Prize at the Inter-American Essay Competition organized by the Buenos Aires Literary Academy.

• Biography (Spanish)
• Works by Mercedes Cabello de Carboner in the German National Library Catalog (German)