A Hoax/Supercheria - Hispanic Literature Author:Leopoldo Alas, Michael Nimetz While modest in scope compared to his massive "La Regenta", this work contains the density and rich complexity of a work of far greater length. It displays many elements of fin-de-siecle neuroticism - sexual ambivalence and timidity, world-weariness, spiritualism, and the fragmented image of the female as mother, religious icon, and carnal threa... more »t. It presents an astute psychological portrait of an intellectual's angst and alienation from the world at large, and from the sources of his own being. It is also one of the most poetic short novels in Spanish.« less