Hell Has No Limits (Spanish: El lugar sin límites, "The Place Without Limits") is a 1966 novel written by Chilean José Donoso. The novel is set south of the Chilean capital, Santiago, in a small town near the regional center of Talca. It tells the story of a bordello, and details the prostitutes' way of life. The main character is Manuela, the transgender woman who owns the bordello. A number of other memorable characters are introduced. The novel was well received, and Donoso himself considered it his best work: "the most perfect, with fewest errors, the most complete".

Title

The title Hell Has No Limits refers to a line in Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus, where the character Mephistophilis says:

Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscrib'd In one self place; for where we are is hell, And where hell is, there must we ever be. —Doctor Faustus, Act II, scene i, line 118

Film adaptation

In 1978, the book was made into a film of the same name.

Editions available

  • Carlos Fuentes / José Donoso / Severo Sarduy (1972). Triple Cross: Holy Place / Hell Has No Limits / From Cuba with a Song, Dutton.
  • Donoso, José (1995), Hell Has No Limits, Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, OCLC. Trans. Suzanne Jill Devine.
  • Donoso, José (1999), Hell Has No Limits, Los Angeles: Green Integer, OCLC. Trans. Suzanne Jill Devine.

Notes