Publisher's Synopsis
Carlos, heir to a notable fin-de-siècle Lisbon family, aspires to serve his fellow men as a doctor, in the arts and politics. But Lisbon society is so subject to international pressures that he cannot succeed and declines into amiable dilletantism. Hailed as a masterpiece in the Paris of Flaubert, Balzac and Zola, this remains Eça's most popular novel.
