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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In Barcelona’s streets and salons, pleasure offers its bait while reputation and conscience pull in opposite directions.
The Bait of Sin by M. Figuerola Aldroféu explores temptation, deception and moral ruin in nineteenth-century Barcelona. Factories, ports and new wealth stand beside old churches and strict family customs. In this world, ordinary lives face the pull of desire and the weight of what others expect.
This moral novel turns toward the dangers hidden inside attractive promises. Flattery and secrecy can draw a life off course, while lies threaten the trust that holds people together. Streets, salons and family expectations frame a dark tale where pleasure carries a cost and conscience refuses to stay quiet.
What you’ll discover
- A city of contrasts Enter a Barcelona where new wealth stands close to old churches and strict customs.
- The hook beneath pleasure Explore the title’s unsettling image of something attractive that conceals a painful cost.
- Small steps toward danger Follow the pull of flattery, secrecy and desire as moral boundaries come under pressure.
- Trust under strain Consider how deception reaches beyond one person, drawing families and friends into its consequences.
- Conscience against reputation Encounter the stern moral judgments of an age deeply concerned with conduct and consequence.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like old-fashioned melodrama, vivid street scenes of Barcelona, stories of love, money and revenge, and lively dialogue between workers, nobles and schemers.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A father's caution tests a suitor
- Arturo's elegance conceals a criminal business
- A threat forces Gracieta into silence
- Abuse and rejection stir further revenge
- Neighbors follow the city's shared knowledge
- Bought silence opens another trap
- Honor matters more than social rank
- Quick scenes make hidden threats visible
- Small choices spread harm through lives
Who’s who
- GracietaA sixteen-year-old seamstress from Allada Street who trusts a suitor's promise of marriage and wants a happy life with her father.
- PauHer father, a decent cobbler and proud veteran, who wants only his daughter's happiness and asks to investigate the suitor's character first.
- Arturo BoschA well-dressed schemer with false names, a mistress and a hidden warehouse, who wants whatever he sets his eyes on.
- Mala-ánimaArturo's red-haired servant, who builds crates and obeys orders, and who wants more money and a woman for himself.
- Antonia de Roca-vivaArturo's mistress, an orphan who loves comfort and the theatre, and who leaves him to live with the marquis.
- The marquisA fifty-year-old nobleman and theatre-goer who wants Antonia and refuses to own a child by his former lover.
- Adelina Borel·liA former Italian dancer, scorned by the marquis, who wants her child to have a name and her revenge.
- PeretRoseta's fiancé from Barceloneta, who helps the neighbors hunt the culprit and wants to marry and open a small shop.
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The Bait of Sin
A cobbler's daughter in Barcelona trusts a well-dressed suitor who hides a warehouse of crates and a dark plan.
Easy readUnder 2 hours to read20 languages
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“Time will tell.”
In short
In Barcelona, a sixteen-year-old seamstress is drawn into a story of seduction, deceit and revenge. A smartly dressed young man tells her he will marry her within a year.
The Bait of Sin at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 50 min1 h 25 min fast, 2 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 25,800 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A cobbler and his daughter meet a suitor
The novel opens on a street, not in a drawing room. Pau, a cobbler near the Marcús chapel, is shouting at schoolboys who have tied his worktable to a cart wheel and dragged it away. The scene is comic, and it shows the world the book starts in. It is a world of small trades, nosy neighbors and a decent man with a quick temper.
Pau is fifty-eight and a widower. His daughter Gracieta is sixteen and as pretty as a bouquet. She sews collars and cuffs at Verdereau's workshop. Every evening a young man called Arturo waits outside and walks her to the corner of Angel Square. One evening he tells her he wants to marry her within a year and spare her from work.
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Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 1 h 50 min
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Figuerola Aldroféu, M. The Bait of Sin. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-bait-of-sin.
Figuerola Aldroféu, M. (2026). The bait of sin. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-bait-of-sin
Figuerola Aldroféu, M. The Bait of Sin. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-bait-of-sin.
@book{figuerolaaldrofeu2026bait,
author = {Figuerola Aldroféu, M.},
title = {The Bait of Sin},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-bait-of-sin}
}
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What is The Bait of Sin about?
It follows Gracieta, a young seamstress in Barcelona, and her father Pau, a cobbler, who are pursued by a smooth schemer named Arturo. The story moves through traps, gossip, bribes, theatre boxes and revenge among rich and poor alike.
Who is Arturo Bosch in The Bait of Sin?
Arturo is a well-dressed young man who claims to speculate on the stock exchange. He uses false names, keeps a mistress and runs a warehouse with a hired servant. Characters call him the Bait of Sin.
When and where was The Bait of Sin written?
The novel explores seduction, deception and revenge in nineteenth-century Barcelona. The author, M. Figuerola Aldrofeu, says it is the first book written in Catalan in Uruguay. The story itself is set in nineteenth-century Barcelona and names real places such as the Liceu and Passeig de Gràcia.
The author
M. Figuerola Aldroféu
Writer
M. Figuerola Aldrofeu died in 1913. The dedication shows that the writer lived in Montevideo in 1889 and wrote The Bait of Sin in Catalan at the request of a publisher there, Joan Hernando Palmés. The book itself shows an author who knew Barcelona's streets, theatres and cafes well, and who wrote for a Catalan-speaking audience far from home.
“Time will tell.”
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