Her first years in school were in a girl's catholic school Sagrados Corazones and after her father's death in 1919, María Luisa, only being an 8-year-old girl, went alongside her mother and sisters to live in Paris, where she finished her studies at college Sainte Geneviève. At the University of Paris she studied literature and philosophy. She also attended the Lycée La Bruyère and the Sorbonne at the University of Paris. There, she was part of a different cultural and artistic panorama, place where she gained interest in literature and of course, in writing novels. After finishing her university studies she came back to Chile, reuniting with her mother and sisters again. She also studied violin with the music teacher Jacques Thibaud and drama with Charles Dolan. In 1938 she published one of her most famous and most important novels in Chilean literature, La amortajada, which earned her the Premio de la Novela de la Municipalidad de Santiago. Also, when she lived in United States, with views on the American book market, she wrote a novel in English, called The House of Mist, which was a translation to English of her novel La última niebla.
Personal life
Upon her return to South America she married a pioneer in civil aviation, Eulogio Sánchez, who did not share her interest in literature. During their marriage, Bombal began to suffer from depression, and attempted suicide. In 1933 she married the homosexual painter Jorge Larco, forming with him a marriage blanche. With the help of friends, Bombal fled the country to Argentina, where in 1933 she met Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda in Buenos Aires. In 1937 she returned to Chile due to the beginning of a divorce trial. In 1941 she acquired a revolver, went to the Hotel Crillón and waited for Eulogio, her lover. When he came out, she shot him three times in the arm. She went to trial; however, Eulogio exempted her from all guilt, for which the judge acquitted her. Years later, on María Luisa's own words, she said that he ruined her life, however, she never forgot him. Later on, she moved to United States, where she married the French count, Rafael de Saint Phall, whom she had a daughter with, called Brigitte. She lived there until 1971. She then returned to South America; living first in Argentina, where she met important men of letters, and then in Viña del Mar, Chile. There, on 18 September 1976, Bombal again met Jorge Luis Borges.
Death
In her final days, which she spent in Chile, Bombal developed an alcohol abuse. This drinking problem forced her to repeatedly visit the hospital for a liver disease. She remained in Chile until 1980, dying the same year on May 6 in Santiago, victim of a huge gastrointestinal bleeding.
Distinction between femininity and masculinity in her works
In every novel and story written by María Luisa, there is a strong distinction between how women and men think and behave. We can see this clearly, when in most of her works, women and men characters are separated by a huge gender gap and the relationships between these characters are always troubled or flawed. For Bombal, femininity is a symbol of uniqueness, more related to nature, emotions and intuition, very different from how masculinity is represented, where men are described as stronger and wiser, at the moment of facing problems.
