Half-hearted suggestions that they should visit Paris are conveniently forgotten and Jacinto becomes “well and truly settled”. A reviewer in the UK's The Independent considered the novel to be “a smart balance of satire, irony and lyric grace – the progress of a rich brat who quits the city to find fulfilment in rural life”. Another review felt that the novel offered a “wry take on fin-de-siècle life as experienced by two secular, well-heeled young men in the bustle of Paris and in the quietude of the Portuguese countryside”. However, the same reviewer argued that the book was not particularly profound and was basically a second string work by a major author. This was due not to the quality of the prose, but to the reliance upon the most easily caricatured subjects, unlike the novelist's other books. Several reviewers comment adversely on the end of the book, written by Eça's friend, Ramalho Ortigão, which is seen as being too flowery, predictable and sentimental for the satirical tone of the novel.