Reyes Monforte in conversation with Carlos Aganzo

Many of the women who have made their mark in centuries past did so in spite of the conventions of the time and thanks to intelligence, ambition and passion combined in equal measure into a force that sometimes destroyed them. Writer Reyes Monforte tells one such story in depth in La condesa maldita, the real-life Countess Maria Tarnowska, descendant of the Scottish queen Mary Stuart, member of one of the most important Russian aristocratic families of the court of the tsars and closely connected to the Romanovs. Overnight, she became the first femme fatale of the belle époque and the focus of the 20th century’s first true crime story. She was accused of instigating the murder of her soon-to-be husband, with the help of two of her lovers: Moscow's most famous lawyer, and the Russian translator of Charles Baudelaire’s work. It was the scandal that shocked the whole of Europe at the beginning of the 20th century.

Monforte will discuss the novel with Carlos Aganzo, author of some twenty books of poetry and as many travel books. Formerly editor of Diario de Ávila and El Norte de Castilla, he is currently director of the Vocento Foundation.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event

Event in Spanish