Aurora's Motives (Vintage International) [Paperback]

This is a reasonably interesting re-counting of the tragedy that enfolded Aurora Rodriguez, a daughter of Spain, who, born in 1890, grew up in comfort and privilege as a member of the bourgeois, only to renounce the norms of her upbringing in search for a more perfect recognition of self.

After the death of her parents, Aurora was to scandalize her contemporaries, as well as her brother, with her search for a surrogate father for a child, which she would raise herself in accordance with her own philosophical vision. That vision was a liberal, free-thinking one, in which the world would be made into a better, more Utopian one. In this world, the role of women would be equal with men, which philosophy was very avant-garde for her time.

Aurora met a man who represented that he was a priest, albeit an unconventional one, and agreeing to her terms, they entered into a sexual relationship for the purpose of procreation. Aurora's determination bore fruit, when she eventually found herself pregnant. In 1914, Aurora moved to Madrid, where she gave birth to that child, a girl whom she named Hildegart and to whom she was slavishly devoted.

As her daughter grew up, mother and daughter were as one in terms of ideas and philosophies. Aurora was Hildegart's Svengali, and Hildegart was being made in her mother's political image. It was almost as if Aurora were living vicariously through her daughter, who was highly precocious for her age. By the time Hildegart was seventeen, she was a well known public figure and espouser of liberal causes and feminism, as well as an ardent advocate for a Spanish Republic.

As young woman are so often wont to do, however, Hildegart made a brief stab at independence from her mother's intellectual apron strings after she met H. G. Wells. She began thinking of things other than politics and causes. No longer was Aurora the center of Hildegart's world, a fact that caused Aurora much distress. Feeling betrayed by a daughter over whom she exercised less and less control, Aurora had the final say when she put a gun to her sleeping daughter and fired it at point blank range.

This murder was a cause celebre in Spain, where Hildegart in her short life had become a fairly well-known public figure and an impassioned advocate on many issues that were, at the time, viewed as being leftist by nature. The author attempts to reconstruct Aurora's life and paint a portrait of a woman who, born before her time, had sought immortality through her daughter, Hildegart, a child who was raised in the cross-hairs of her mother's singular vision.

Their story is briefly told and is hampered somewhat by a translation that, at times, seems awkward in its construction. Moreover, the portrait that the author paints of his subjects never seems to rise beyond the two-dimensional. Still, for those unfamiliar with these two star-crossed lives, the book provides a tantalizing glimpse into a story of a mother's love gone dangerously awry. It is a tragic reminder that a parent must allow a child to live his or her own dreams and not those of the parent.

I read this book in the late 80's. It made a deep impression on me. I have been searching for it again since that time. I dont have an actual copy yet but I am so glad to know the book hasnt been forgotten. It should be required reading....perhaps it already is.

This book begins with a murder - the mother (Aurora) killing her 17-year-old daughter (Hildegart). Hildegart was a political, feminist child-genius in Spain. Her major activity occurred between 1928-1933. She was a planned superwoman of her mother who raised her specifically to fulfill a political mission. The author has done an excellent job of portraying the socialist movement of the period and the roots of Aurora's project. There is the usual gap between words and deeds, the political deals, the self-serving compromises etc. But most of all there is a mother on a mission, ignoring and overriding anything for Hildegart that is outside Aurora's goal.

Beautifully written, this book is very appropriate to our times. It shows in a sympathic way the dangers of fanaticism.