The Maravillas District is the first novel in an autobiographical trilogy and the finest of Chacel's works to date. Proustian in its use of memory (yet unique in style), it traces two girls' discovery of their artistic and intellectual vocations, focusing less on the social and cultural obstacles to women's self-realization-though these are present-than on the invincible impulses of imagination and intellect in these girls' lives and on the enabling power of their mutual support.