Is Nazarin a latter-day Christ or a Quixotic fool? Saintly, mysterious, irritating, he attempts to set up an alternative society based on non-resistance to evil and the rejection of private property, with oftern unexpected results. He wants nothing, asks for nothing and by his example preaches patience and passivity. At once a serious discussion of the roots of Christianity, an exploration of abnormal psychology and a critique of bourgeois materialism, Nazarin (1895) is also an exercise in comedy. In the Cervantine tradition, its ironic metafictional dimension makes it a peculiarly modern novel and it was made into a film by Bunnuel.