Isabel Allende possesses a unique style of writing. Also, while Allende sets herself apart from literary style conventions her writing remains main-stream enough that audiences around the world can understand and respect her novels. Aspects of her writing style which make her novels recognizable and unique are her diction, her syntax, and the perspective in which she tells the story. Sometimes meaning can be lost in translation, however the style of Isabel Allende is strong and powerful in all 27 languages it has been translated into.

            Allende often manipulates her diction in order to convey a certain tone and mood to the novel as a whole. Allende’s diction is often semi-formal; being easy to understand and colloquial while still having a regal undertone. Allende writes all of her novels in Spanish first although she is multilingual. Even through translation important literary devices such as repetition, alliteration, and consonance remain intact. Allende’s diction will often make shifts throughout her novels when she is describing different characters, or different time periods. For example, in The House of the Spirits, Allende shifts her diction and tone as the generations of the De Valle family unfold. In the beginning of the novel the protagonist is a child and likewise the diction is simple and childlike; as the novel progresses and the protagonist grows into a grandmother the diction of the entire novels evolves into being more formal and traditional.

            Allende also uses the juxtaposition of different syntax styles to create a multidimensional effect which mirrors that of her multifaceted characters and worlds within her novels. Allende uses paragraphs with long lengthy sentences rich in imagery and literary devices ending with one or two short, curt, simple sentences in order to draw attention to the theme of the passage. Using different lengths of sentences helps give a sense of realness to the characters because people use different syntax in everyday conversations.

            One of the most important and intriguing aspects of the style of Isabel Allende is the perspective in which Allende writes her novels. Allende often injects herself into the story as one of the characters. In doing so she achieves a truly different point of view in a fictional story. For example Allende becomes one of the characters in her novel Zorro. In different point within the novel Allende interjects to give life to the novel. She would write a page or two discussing, well her, the character aptly named Isabelle, writing the novel. She explains the fatigue of writing with a quill pen and ink and her fading memory of the events which befell her, her sister, and Zorro. This gives a special feeling to the novel as well as a sense that it is genuine to the novel which is based on folklore.  

            If one were to read just a single page of Isabel Allende’s work, one would be able to recognize it immediately because of her unique use of diction, syntax, and point of view. Allende novels can also be recognized by her use of magical realism, beautiful and strange imagery, and timeless and boundless themes.