Fascinating webfind!

Haltickling · Jul 25, 2004

From a book review of "Su unico hijo" (Clarìn, 1891):

(translated by me): The highlight of this strange comédie humaine, which tells the love story of Bonifacio Reyes (tiny in body and spirit), is the encounter of two women: His wife Emma, from a rich Spanish family, and her noble-minded, idealistically romancing German friend Martha. Their main entertainment is to mutually tickle their feet. What at first - seen out of context - looks like a silly idea of the extravagant author, turns out to be a malicious parody of the wealthy bourgoisie, a demasking psychological portrait:

"What Martha (the idealistic, superior woman) didn't admit: Her most sincere and most intense pleasure was to get tickled, particularly on her soles. Many people had tickled her under the arms, on the back, and on the neck, even men; but she rarely succeeded to find somebody who would give her these pleasures on her soles: some servant maid who won her trust, or some female friend from the village (...) and now Emma, who granted her this sybaritc favor after two months of acquaintance; Emma Valcárcel gave her this pleasure, herself laughing her heart out."

Source: http://www.lyrikwelt.de/rezensionen/seineinzigersohn-r.htm
(Frankfurter Rundschau, 17.08.2002, review title: "The Pleasure of Foot Tickling"

As far as I know, there's no English translation of this novel. However, I might write a story about these women...