The publication includes works by two Spanish classics of the 20th century - the philosopher José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955) and the writer Pio Baroch (1872–1956). We have before us that rare case when both the research itself and the subject of its analysis (the novel “The Tree of Knowledge”) are under one cover. Their dialogue in the context of European culture at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries introduces the reader to a wide range of philosophical issues. “Anatomy of a Distracted Soul” has been translated into Russian for the first time. The text of the novel was re-checked with the original and revised. The scientific apparatus of the publication includes an introductory article, comments to both works and a name index. For philosophers, philologists and the widest range of readers.