A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
The readership the story was written for.
A newly appointed State Councillor scatters favors across Paris until one generous recommendation threatens his carefully polished importance.
A late-night walk with a nervous pedlar leads a young oarsman into a poor household where each sound suggests the wrong kind of danger.
A newspaper’s suicide statistics carry a riverside reader into a dream of a Paris institution that promises a quiet, respectable death.
A stolen farm rabbit sends two pleased policemen after a suspect whose hiding place exposes more than one rural offense.
A surgeon’s false tale about a stolen saint’s relic impresses his devout fiancée—until she visits Cologne herself.
On her way to a lover’s apartment, a Parisian society wife discovers that habit can exhaust even the most forbidden affair.
A stranger’s watchful presence unsettles a fisherman’s household until his identity forces the family to reconsider every bond within it.
A divorced man meets his remarried former wife at a hotel and turns their old grievances into a calculated new proposal.
A confident Parisian explains how two carefully scheduled affairs collapsed through a silent exchange of pins in his bedroom.
A marquise arrives laughing with a secret: she has chosen a direct revenge on her jealous, abusive husband.
A coastal place-name preserves the story of an austere village priest whose hatred of desire turns violent on a storm-beaten cliff.
A bored baroness copies a window signal she sees across the street and discovers that curiosity can be taken as a business offer.
A reluctant traveler bound for Italy meets an aloof young woman whose sudden proposal reshapes his carefully planned holiday.
An aging sportsman keeps hunting season alive through elaborate dinners, improbable anecdotes, and one coveted delicacy.
A frugal Norman peasant picks up a scrap of string on market day and finds that a harmless act can destroy a man’s reputation.
A duel between two dragoons reveals the secret arrangement of a widow known for piety and strict respectability.
A smug husband decides he would recognize any sign of adultery and devises a test that may prove more than he wants to know.
A respected lawyer accused of violating his lover’s grave refuses counsel and asks a shocked courtroom to hear why he returned to her.
A disabled beggar, rejected from every familiar door, sets out hungry across a winter landscape governed by suspicion and contempt.
An unemployed carpenter walks from town to town seeking work until hunger and official suspicion drive him toward collapse.
A miserly woman refuses to replace her husband’s ruined umbrella—until an insurance policy suggests a way to avoid paying.
A Parisian libertine becomes consumed by a stranger whose identity remains beyond his reach.
A young man explains how his mother’s final testament exposed the truth behind a brutal country household.
A suitor under constant observation begins a secret affair, then mistakes the wrong woman at a château window.
