Release date is 2025-11-04

Juhani Kärkkäinen and Tapio Riikonen

"Pa'ossa" by Mór Jókai is a novel written in the late 19th century. Set amid Madrid’s anti-Napoleonic fervor, it appears to weave a historical romance-adventure that brings together the noblewoman Serena de Reynos, her sharp-tongued brother don Jacinto, and a desperate prisoner whose fate collides with hers. Expect intrigue across salons and rooftops, with themes of freedom, honor, and political passion driving the drama.

The opening of the novel contrasts Madrid’s jubilant celebrations of “la libertad” with the solitude of a lone lifer who, inflamed by the city’s cry for freedom, plots an audacious escape through a chimney, across roofs, and down into an adjacent palace. Meanwhile, Serena hosts a glittering salon where rival factions spar until music and a patriotic recitation by Jacinto’s English wife unify the room, hinting at a broader national awakening. In private, Serena reveals a hidden portrait and a sorrowful diary entry about a man tied to her past, while her venal gatekeepers conspire—prodded by an heir’s inheritance scheme—to catch her in scandal. The sequence culminates with the fugitive stumbling into Serena’s bedchamber, the fallen curtain exposing the same portrait, and Serena, unafraid, calmly offering help rather than raising an alarm. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Jyväskylä: Jyväskylän kirjapaino, 1890