A labyrinth of jealousy and manipulation unfolds in this second volume of Blasco Ibáñez's sprawling novel of Spanish high society. The conde de Baselga prowls the midnight streets of Madrid, his mind fractured by obsessive suspicion: his wife Pepita has been unfaithful, or so the venomous whispers of the duquesa de León would have him believe. What follows is a descent into madness and rage, as the count confronts not only his wife's alleged betrayal but the machinations of those who would destroy her. A letter arrives that threatens to shatter his remaining sanity, and the explosive confrontation between husband and wife sets off a chain of tragic consequences that reveal the catastrophic cost of jealousy let loose. Blasco Ibáñez writes with the visceral intensity of a melodrama, yet his psychological insight elevates the novel beyond mere sensation. This is Spanish Gothic at its most operatic: passion, betrayal, and the poison of distrust consuming everything in their path. For readers who savor the dark romance of du Maurier's Rebecca or the poisonous jealousy of Othello, this volume delivers a devastating portrait of a man destroye by his own suspicions.
