The only novel of the twentieth century's most acclaimed surrealist painter, a richly visual depiction of a group of eccentric aristocrats in the years preceding the Second World War __________ 'Start the first page and you are in the presence of an old-fashioned baroque novel, intelligent, extravagant, as photographically precise as his paintings' P. J. Kavanagh, Guardian 'So full of visual invention, so witty, so charged with an almost Dickensian energy that it's difficult not to accept the author's own arrogant valuation of himself as a genius' Observer 'What really strikes the reader is the abounding physical detail of objects, light, spaces, and materials' The Times __________ In swirling, surreal prose, the iconic artist Salvador Dalí portrays the intrigues and love affairs of a group of eccentric aristocrats who, in their luxury and extravagance, symbolize decadent Europe in the 1930s. In the shadow of encroaching war, their tangled lives provide a thrilling vehicle for Dalí's uniquely spirited imagination and artistic vision.