This book investigates how parks and public space figure in attempts to envision Madrid as the capital of modern Spain. It explores the intersections between a burgeoning economy of consumption and the representation of parks, boulevards, and outlying lands in works by Ram n de Mesonero Romanos, Mariano Jos de Larra, Armando Palacio Vald s, Emilia Pardo Baz n, Benito P rez Gald s, and others for whom Madrid's place in 'modern' Europe is critically...