The character arc of Clarice Lispector

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born Chaya Lispector on 10 December 1920 in Chechelnyk, Ukraine. Died 9 December 1977 in Rio de Janeiro, one day before her fifty seventh birthday. Between the two sit a flight from pogroms in 1922, a mother dead in 1930, law school in 1937, citizenship and marriage in January 1943, a first novel that December, fifteen years abroad, a divorce in 1959, a fire in September 1966 and a last novel in 1977. The line below draws that whole life in order.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who was Clarice Lispector?

A novel at twenty three that startled a country.

She was born in a rural Jewish community in western Ukraine and her family fled the pogroms that followed the collapse of the Russian Empire, reaching Brazil in early 1922 when she was barely one. They settled first in Maceio and then in Recife. Her mother Mania died on 21 September 1930, at forty two, when Clarice was nine. Her father Pedro died in 1940 after surgery. She was orphaned at nineteen.

The family moved to Rio in 1935 and she entered the Law School of the University of Brazil in 1937, working as a journalist and publishing her first story in May 1940. She became a Brazilian citizen on 12 January 1943 and married the diplomat Maury Gurgel Valente eleven days later. In December 1943, at twenty three, she published Near to the Wild Heart, which caused a sensation and won the Graca Aranha Prize the following year. One critic called it the greatest novel a woman had written in Portuguese.

From 1944 to 1959 she lived abroad with her husband in Naples, Rome, Bern, England and Washington, and had two sons. She divorced in 1959 and came home to Rio for good. On 14 September 1966 a fire started by a lit cigarette while she slept burned her badly, and her right hand was nearly amputated. She went on writing in chronic pain for eleven more years, publishing Agua Viva in 1973 and The Hour of the Star in 1977, and died of inoperable ovarian cancer that December. Her line is worth reading for the eleven years after the fire.

The moments

Clarice Lispector's timeline.

The 1920s

Mar 1922

Carried out of the pogroms

Setback, and it changed everything. Barely one year old, and already in the third country of her life.

The 1930s

21 Sep 1930

Her mother died

Setback, and it changed everything. Nine years old.

Mar 1937

Law school

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Law, and journalism to pay for it.

The 1940s

May 1940

Her first story

Milestone, and it changed her direction. A first story published, and her father dead, in the same year. She was nineteen.

12 Jan 1943

Brazilian, and married

Milestone, and it changed her direction. A passport and a husband inside two weeks.

Dec 1943

Near to the Wild Heart

Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty three years old, in a language she was not born into, and the country stopped to read it.

Jun 1944

Fifteen years abroad

Setback, and it changed everything. Just as the work landed, she left, and was a diplomat's wife in five countries for fifteen years.

The 1950s

1 Jun 1958

Stay married abroad, or go home and write

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: divorce and go home, taken, or stay in the postings. She wrote The Passion According to G.H., Agua Viva and The Hour of the Star in the years after she came home.

~1959

She came home

Milestone, and it changed everything. Divorced, home, and writing full time at last.

The 1960s

~1964

The Passion According to G.H.

Milestone, and it changed her direction. The book that made the rest of the world start paying attention.

14 Sep 1966

The fire

Setback, and it changed everything. Her writing hand, nearly lost. The record gives the date and the injury and no more.

The 1970s

~1973

She kept writing

Milestone, and it changed everything. Chronic pain, and more books, for eleven years.

Oct 1977

The Hour of the Star

Milestone, and it changed everything. The last one, published the year she died, and the one most people read first.

The line ends 9 Dec 1977, in Rio de Janeiro, one day short of fifty seven. What it set moving is still being translated: a Ukrainian baby carried out of a pogrom became one of the writers Brazil is proudest of, in a language she was not born into.

What she wrote

Books by Clarice Lispector

1943
Near to the Wild Heart
1949
The Besieged City
1960
Family Ties
1964
The Passion According to G.H.
1973
Agua Viva
1977
The Hour of the Star

Your turn

Every line draws a unique story.

Hers was carried out of one country and made in another. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.

Step through

Draw my own line Explore Character Arc

Clarice Lispector: frequently asked questions

What people ask about her line.

What was Clarice Lispector's character arc?

A baby carried out of Ukraine away from pogroms who grew up in Brazil, lost her mother at nine and her father at nineteen, and published a novel at twenty three that startled the country she had arrived in as an infant.

Where was Clarice Lispector born?

In Chechelnyk, a rural Jewish community in western Ukraine, on 10 December 1920. Her family fled the pogroms that followed the collapse of the Russian Empire and reached Brazil in early 1922, when she was barely one.

What is Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector?

Her first novel, published in December 1943 when she was twenty three. It caused a literary sensation and won the Graca Aranha Prize the following year, and one critic called it the greatest novel a woman had written in Portuguese.

What happened to Clarice Lispector in the fire?

On 14 September 1966 a fire caused by a lit cigarette while she was sleeping burned her severely, and her right hand was nearly amputated. She went on writing in chronic pain for eleven more years.

Why did Clarice Lispector live abroad?

She married the diplomat Maury Gurgel Valente in January 1943 and lived with him in Naples, Rome, Bern, England and Washington from 1944 to 1959, having two sons. She divorced in 1959 and returned to Rio permanently.

What was Clarice Lispector's last book?

The Hour of the Star, published in 1977, the year she died. It is the book most readers come to her through. She also published The Passion According to G.H. in 1964 and Agua Viva in 1973.

How did Clarice Lispector die?

Of inoperable ovarian cancer, on 9 December 1977, one day before her fifty seventh birthday. She was buried at the Jewish Cemetery of Caju in Rio de Janeiro on 11 December 1977.

Where does this timeline of Clarice Lispector's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Clarice Lispector isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to her.

More character arcs

Lives that rhyme with her.

Every Character, A to Z

Sources

Clarice Lispector, English Wikipedia biography.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Clarice Lispector.
Graca Aranha Prize, 1944 award record.