"Torquemada en la hoguera" by Benito Pérez Galdós is a novella published in 1889. It introduces Francisco Torquemada, a ruthless moneylender who preys on Madrid's residents during the early years of the Restoration. Galdós, himself a victim of usurers, crafts a darkly comic portrait of one of literature's great misers. The story opens with an almost comic allegory of the Spanish Inquisition, setting the stage for this tale of greed and its consequences in post-Isabella Madrid. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
These books are free to read. Each is in the public domain in the United States; check your own country's rules before you copy or share one.