"This work contains new English translations of three short novels and seven short stories that critics have singled out as representative of Leopoldo Alas's short prose fiction." ""The Two Boxes" evokes the frustration of an elusive artistic ideal in the person of a violinist who seeks pure music; "Dona Berta," lyrical and nostalgic, portrays illusion and disillusion while painting a search for a lost youthful love; and "The Lord," which Ricardo Gullon considered perhaps Alas's best short novel, tells of a young priest's pure love for a young woman, a spirituality unsullied by carnal desire." "The short stories explore themes that concern the interior person, the inner being. "A Day Laborer" tells of a liberal intellectual who can identify with exploited laborers because he himself has been exploited; "Change of Light" describes the spiritual peace that comes to a writer as a result of physical blindness; "The Golden Rose" shows through a series of contrasts - good and evil, heaven and earth, light and darkness - that virtue and sacrifice are rewarded; "Queen Margaret" chronicles the misery of failed opera singers who find happiness after leaving the short-lived glory of the theater; "Torso" relates the faithfulness of a servant who is rejected by a young master; "The Burial of the Sardine," with echoes of Francisco de Goya, represents the ephemeral nature of joy as experienced during Shrovetide in a city dominated by the clergy; and "Two Scholars" recounts how envy and vanity affect a personal relationship."--Jacket.