The work of Silverio Lanza, the heteronomous name of Juan Bautista Amorós (Madrid, 1856-Getafe, 1912), sparked the admiration of young writers of the generation of '98, such as Baroja, Azorín, Maeztu and, above all, Ramón Gómez de la Serna.

The eight novels written by Silverio Lanza are collected in two volumes. The first volume contains his two most voluminous novels -Artuña (1893) and his masterpiece, La rendición de Santiago (1907)- and the second volume features his other six novels -Mala cuna y mala fosa (1883), Noticias biográficas acerca del Excmo. Señor Marqués del Mantillo (1889), Ni en la vida, ni en la muerte (1890), Desde la quilla hasta el tope (1891), Los gusanos (1909) and Medicina rústica (1918). 

The person in charge of selecting the texts that make up these two volumes and writing the prologue that helps us to understand Lanza's work was the writer, literary critic and columnist Juan Manuel de Prada (Baracaldo, 1970).