First published in 1929, The Seven Madmen perfectly captures the conflict of Argentine society at a crucial moment in its history. Arlt's exploration of the still mysterious city of Buenos Aires, its street slang, crowded tenements, crazy juxtapositions, and anguish are at the core of this novel. In this seething, hostile city, Erdosain wanders the streets, trying to decipher the teeming life going on behind dark doors. He searches, literally, for his soul which is causing him so much pain, wondering what it might look like.

Roberto Arlt followed The Seven Madmen with Los Lanzallamas (The Flamethrowers) in 1931, picking up the story of The Seven Madmen right where he’d left off two years before and fleshing out the back stories of Erdosain’s sidekicks—characters of extraordinary extravagance such as the Astrologer, Hipolita (The lame whore), Arturo Haffner (The Melancholy Ruffian) and Gregorio Barsut—while at the same time trailing Remo’s descent into the madness that would inevitably compel him towards the violent and tragic climax of the novel’s denouement.