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 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.

"Start the first page and you are in the presence of an old-fashioned baroque novel, intelligent, extravagant, as photographically precise as his paintings" - Guardian

"So full of visual invention, so witty, so charged with an almost Dickensian energy" - Observer

"What really strikes the reader is the abounding physical detail of objects, light, spaces, and materials" - The Times

"Flames positively lick from Salvador Dalí's pages" - Harpers & Queen