During the second half of the 19th century, Lima was a city in the process of modernization thanks to the wealth proved from the exploitation of the guano. In this context, in the 1870's, emerges a group of women of letters, supported by the press and the principal literary institutions. They find receptive spaces to their ideas and artistic expressions as the Veladas Literarias. Nevertheless, after the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) and especially after the occupation of Lima city by the Chilean army, some intellectuals changed their literary proposal toward one more critical of the society. Among them, one of the most prolific and important was Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera (1842-1909). She constructed her novels with a sociological concern to the condition of women because she believes that they are responsible for the moral transformation of the society and, therefore, its own progress.This dissertation is structured in three parts. The first deals with the political, social and cultural context in which the women of Lima were formed, especially the women of letters such as Cabello. The second part will examine six novels and several articles by the author. With this purpose we have subdivided her work in three parts (traditional novels, novels of the rewriting and novels of the transgression). Finally, we have made a comparison with two contemporaneous female writers of the same period, Soledad Acosta de Samper (Colombian novel) and Emilia Pardo Bazán (Spanish novel), to attempt to distinguish the singularity of Peruvian realism and the representation of women in relation to the literary production of other Spanish-speaking countries.
