A brilliant comedic tale about a jealous husband's absurd attempts to catch his wife in an affair. His suspicion leads him from a tense street encounter straight into a ridiculous situation—hiding under a stranger's bed with another "uninvited guest."

This novel tells the story of a lower-class sailor who, for the love of a bourgeois girl, obsessively educates himself and becomes a famous writer. Having achieved wealth and fame, he becomes completely disillusioned with human hypocrisy and dies..