Hell Has No Limits

This article is about the novel. For the film, see The Place Without Limits.

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".

Hell Has No Limits

First edition (Spanish)
Author	José Donoso
Original title	El lugar sin límites
Translator	Suzanne Jill Levine
Language	Spanish
Publisher	Sun & Moon Press
Publication date	1966
Publication place	Chile
Published in English	1972
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	142
ISBN	1-55713-275-5

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 33207281. Trans. Suzanne Jill Devine.
• Donoso, José (1999), Hell Has No Limits, Los Angeles: Green Integer, OCLC 42949208. Trans. Suzanne Jill Devine.