
In a Parisian night that barely clings to its last flickering lamps, a young writer named Zarzoso is jolted from his sleep by a hushed knock. His friend Agramunt arrives breathless, warning of a grave emergency that forces them to abandon the quiet of their apartment and race through the dark streets. The urgency pulls them toward the Rue du Sena, where a somber gathering already swarms around a sudden death.
There, in the dim glow of a quinqué, the body of Alvarez lies sprawled, eyes wide open as if caught in the shock of his own demise. The house’s long‑serving porter, Perico, drifts helplessly among the mourners, haunted by the loss of the man he revered. As whispers of family betrayals and hidden enemies surface, Zarzoso finds himself drawn into a web of secrets that threatens to unravel the fragile peace of the city’s under‑belly.
Language
es
Duration
~5 hours (320K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive)
Release date
2014-05-30
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1867–1928
A fiery Spanish novelist and political activist, he turned the landscapes and tensions of Valencia into vivid, sweeping fiction. His international success later carried his stories far beyond Spain, especially through major film adaptations.
View all books