"Musica Sentimental" carries as subtitle "Silbidos de un vago," the same as Cambaceres' first novel "Potpourri," that aroused ill feelings in a great part of the Argentine literary circle, most probably sullen and envious due to its sales success. Carrying the stigma of pornographer the readers' support to Cambaceres was expected to be short lived. Nothing farthest appart from what finally happened. The appearance of this second novel renewed the indignation as it was the general consensus that it showed the same scandalous traits as the first one. As the book ran among readers from hand to...

Eugenio Cambaceres was the first to introduce the naturalist manner of Emile Zola to Argentinean literature in the late nineteenth century. The work of Cambaceres, a precursor to the contemporary Argentinean novel, is crucial for an understanding of the period of consolidation of Argentina, the formation of a national identity, and especially for the role of the intellectual during that transition. This gereation theoretically and methodically built up a literature with features of its own, stressing the cultural primacy of Buenos Aires par excellence, to enhance the evolution of the...

As "Musica Sentimental" was published the porteno society remarked its originality and its author's talent. The chosen subject -the stay of a "rastacueros" in Paris and his decease due to syphilis- aligns the plot with the contemporary socialites' essential initiatic trip to France, and its literary style with the naturalist trend of the times. Manuel Lainez -a highly influential voice at that time- said: "when a book facilitates its reading from first to last line without boring or disgusting but, on the contrary, with continuously growing interest while breeding plenty of ideas in every...