<p><em>Sentimental Stories</em> by Guatemalan born Enrique G&oacute;mez Carrillo, man of letters, duelist and dandy, originally published in 1900 and here presented in English for the first time in a translation by Jessica Sequeira, is an exquisite selection of nine tales that covers the ground from desire to insanity, fulfillment in erotic love to suffering in intense anguish.<br />
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In these stories of solitary figures struggling with incorrigible sentimentality, we meet an aspiring poet who becomes obsessed with what he believes to be Cleopatra&rsquo;s wig, an eccentric doctor who sells a cure for artistic enthusiasm to fictional writers and artists, and a military man who suffers from jealousy due to an anonymous letter, all told with the light touch of a writer who found beauty in surfeit and exaggeration, dissolution and extravagance.&nbsp;<br />
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