Before leaving his homeland (Austro-Hungary), Senior moved into the famous Turkish Baths of Budapest (the "seal castle") to save on rent. In this book, which is primarily a love story, we follow the protagonist, a handsome actor who becomes the object of affection for an upper-class girl who falls in love with him against the backdrop of the girl's life, the lives of other "seals," and their various survival schemes. I am not fond of love stories (yet even I can see that there is plenty of potential), and while the ending is strong, I need help making it work cinematically. The Seal Castle is now available in English for the first time. The story, which rings uncomfortably true to my ears, can be seen as ‘part I’ in a self-biographic work where The Crab’s Rhapsody forms the other half.