Madrid society at the end of the century: a duchess's salon, a stock-jobbing husband, a young man learning that everyone in the room is bought. Palacio Valdés trained as a lawyer in Asturias, turned from criticism to fiction, and became the most translated Spanish novelist of his day - Howells championed him in America as the best living realist. Sixty plates by Sorolla and Fortuny Marsal bring the period's own light and texture to a novel about a city where money decides everything.