Its splendor was dazzling. The silks, muslins, velvets, capes covered with sequins, jewels, incessant popping of champagne corks, valets coming and going, and the continual murmur rich people generate when gathered in strength, all delighted me. “That’s how I want to be,” he said to himself, “even if it means putting up with this insipid music that seems to be going on forever.”
…Eduardo Mendoza, from La ciudad de los prodigios, on nightlife in my next home.