Pío Baroja conducts this novel in an admirable way. It is curious to note how vary the manifestations of an Andrés, although it is inevitable that a character such as this sinks progressively as a result of his inability to stop thinking. Thinking, then, produces a constraint that only worsens with time, finally crystallizing in a declared inadaptation to the world. All this is natural. But Baroja operates, in the antepenultimate chapter, an impressive twist in the plot; one chapter further on, we no longer believe in the outcome that seems to be drawn. Then, skillfully, Baroja shatters the abnormality, and the story seems to end more naturally,—and perhaps more convincingly,—leaving Andrés at last at peace with his fellows.