About the book
Villa Melania is a novel of mystery and family secrets where the present and the past are intertwined in an intimate story of psychological suspense. A family saga where the elements that describe the interiors of the villa work perfectly and contribute to creating that atmosphere that reminds us of nineteenth-century novels.
The novel tells the story of a family living in Zaragoza and owner of a mansion, which in the mid-20th century was a beautiful villa and is now a somewhat dilapidated but comfortable mansion, the ideal place to keep memories and secrets.
As in the Brontë sisters’ novels, the female characters have something of the Gothic about them, with their old-fashioned, dark way of dressing, long, heavy skirts, white faces and abundant hair. There is something about them (especially Melania and Camila) that reminds us of the female characters in the stories of Edgar Allan Poe or the legends of Bécquer; something mysterious, hiding secrets, like Hellen Graham in The Tenant… It also reminds us of Rebecca, by Daphne de Maurier. Villa Melania has parallels with Manderley; the ghostly presence of the deceased Rebecca de Winter permeates the entire mansion, just as Melania seems not to have left the house despite being dead for so many years.
Likewise, Villa Melania presents similarities with Kate Morton’s novels. (Riverton House, The Forgotten Garden…). In Morton’s novels, the female characters bear practically the entire weight of the plot. Likewise, the setting can be somewhat similar: an old and romantic atmosphere. They are stories of family secrets and mysteries of the past. In her novels the past and present are interwoven through time jumps, just as happens in Villa Melania; old buildings, the passage of time, how the past filters into the present… are similar elements.
For readers of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, the Brontë Sisters, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, The Sea of Sargasso by Jean Rhys, Nada by Carmen Laforet, Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins, The Forest Knows Your Name by Alaitz Leceaga…
Source: https://algunoslibrosbuenos.com/villa-melania
