Did you know that Aeschylus had the stupidest death in history, that Cicero's tongue ended up hanging in the Roman Forum, that Dante fell asleep in the middle of a sentence and Machiavelli was not so "Machiavellian"? But the juicy stories of the great masters of literature do not end here. Almost no one remembers that Jonathan Swift anticipated the Silicon Valley computers, that Victor Hugo was passionate about bullfighting, that Larra fell in love with his father's lover, that Valle-Inclán maintained an intense friendship with the man who snatched his arm, that H.G. Wells was a distinguished hat thief... or that some simple chickens saved the life of the legendary Truman Capote.

"Cicero's technique was such that, in the style of the ancient Greek sophists, he was able to defend one position and, 15 minutes later, the opposite."

Writers are judged by their works, but it never hurts to get to know the people behind the pen. In these pages we find —in strict chronological order— the “B Side” of Universal Literature. The greatness and the vile daily miseries of the revered authors we study, read and admire. Tackling this book can change our way of enjoying and understanding literature, while at the same time bringing a good handful of smiles to our faces.

“A master in the old art of instructing by delighting.” Miguel Ángel Almodóvar
“Thanks to Lorenzo Gallardo and his writer buddies, I have turned my old books on the history of literature into fuel for the barbecue.” Carlos Faemino