I'm usually very anti-19t-Century-Literature. My Personal Hell is shelves and shelves of books populated only by novels by Charles Dickens and his contemporaries.

That's why I was completely shocked by this book, which I ended up adoring, and would read again, had I the time.

It's a masterwork of the Naturalist literary movement in terms of style and structure; historically, it paints a vivid picture of the decadence and decline of Spain (especially the decaying aristocracy and the corruption of the "caciques") in the late 1800s.

It has beautiful language, somewhat disturbing imagery, and a pretty gripping plot. It is animalistic in certain ways, and the author has a knack for capturing the nature of the character with a corresponding image that leaps out at the reader and lingers long enough for him/her to make the right connections between what is seen and what is beneath.

As this book is standard on most comprehensive exams for either an M.A. or a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature, if you're on that track, you won't be able to avoid it. Sit back and enjoy it! ( )