"Amparo's development from a disheveled street urchin into a lovely young woman, a leader among the women in the factory, and an inspired orator at a time of national conflict and decision, reflects the author's growing interest in the rights of women in Spanish society. Pardo Bazan offers the reader realistic depictions of the lives of proletarian and bourgeois inhabitants of a provincial capital. Dona Emilia feels obliged to caution any aspiring girl of the working class to tread with great caution near the many boundaries of class separation and she concludes her novel with a mixture of despair along with hope for a world that is still unlikely given the conditions of her time."--BOOK JACKET.