Disinherited. Benito Perez Galdos. 1999.

A beautiful young woman, Isidora Rufete, comes to Madrid with what she believes is documentary proof that she and her brother Mariano are the illegitimate grandchildren of the Marquesa de Aransas. She is prepared to risk all for the man she loves - the Marques de Saldeoro, an idle young widower - and for her dream of nobility.

Originally published in 1881, Disinherited is a realist parody of romantic fiction, the first in Galdos’ panoramic series of novels about contemporary Madrid, inspired by the work of Balzac and Zola. His portrait of a lady and of a spendthrift society in a capital of sleaze, caught between Revolution and Restoration, remains a pertinent moral lesson for modern times.