The Disenchantments of Love, published in Spain in 1647 by Maria de Zayas, is a stunning collection of stories
about women's amorous experiences in a patriarchal and imperialistic society during the turbulent seventeenth century.
Now available for the first time in English translation, the ten exemplary novelas are set within an encompassing
frame story that continues from the first collection, The Enchantments of Love: Amorous and Exemplary Novels, published
in 1637. These sensational and bizarre tales focus on the ways lovers deceive women in order to "get their
way," through magic, cross-dressing as women, and rape - to the torture and murder of innocent women at the
hands of their protectors - their fathers, brothers, and husbands. A fascinating dimension of these fast-paced
narratives is what they suggest through omission, silence, and ambiguous detail: the untold story that fires the
reader's imagination.