Luminaria

Rafael Díaz de Seregón, a rich and reactionary lawyer, appears as a defendant in a trial. He is suspected of having ordered the murder of Eugenio Sotillo, a sinister social activist with whom he has been at odds for years. By means of an allegation that extends throughout the entire novel, Seregón tries to demonstrate his innocence and to emphasize his social and moral superiority with respect to the deceased. The defendant describes the harassment to which Eugenio Sotillo subjected his family and attributes his death to the intervention of supernatural forces, in compliance with a divine sentence. The details of the case are mixed with an account of Seregón's personal decline and the collapse of the archaic world in which he made his fortune. The ingratitude of his children, the crimes of his ancestors, the frustration of his claims to nobility and the betrayal of his best friend intertwine with the unlikely evidence with which he tries to underline his innocence. All this, seasoned by repeated displays of religiosity, serves the accused to portray himself as the last representative of virtue and order. The defendant soon departs from the reliable account of the events and focuses on turning Sotillo, his nemesis, into the symbol of a life that is falling apart and of a society in which good principles have been abolished. But his convoluted exposition is not convincing. His guilt becomes clear as the argument progresses. The expression of his feelings fails to allay suspicion. His words create confusion, cast doubt on his sanity and seek both to intimidate those who judge him and to obtain his forgiveness. Two worlds collide. Good and evil. Faith and disbelief. Tradition and subversion. Refinement and vulgarity. Seregón claims to embody the most sublime values, and in them he sustains his pretended moral innocence.