A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
How the story is told.
A landowner’s annual hunting visit exposes a gamekeeper’s private crisis, then turns into a night of fire, flight, and irreversible violence.
A Norman peasant explains how Saint Michel acquired the Devil’s rich farmland through bargains, crops, and local cunning.
A boastful old bachelor recalls his first society affair and the practical lesson he learned about privacy.
A fallen log prompts an old bachelor to explain how one dangerous evening ended a close friendship and settled his view of marriage.
During the Prussian occupation, an officer mistakes a grieving woman’s immobility for defiance and decides to punish her.
A pious aristocratic family races to secure a freethinking marquis's last rites before scandal can reach the newspapers.
A masked dancer collapses at a Paris ball, and the face beneath his disguise leads a doctor into a marriage shaped by vanity and endurance.
On a bright beach, a painter walks beside his disabled wife while a friend tells the harsh story behind their silent marriage.
A traveler visits a notorious countrywoman whose prosperity depends on the children society pays to stare at.
During a police roundup in rainy Paris, a young prostitute tells a passerby how poverty, abuse, and the law narrowed her choices.
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 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.
A duel between two dragoons reveals the secret arrangement of a widow known for piety and strict respectability.
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 family’s hatred of hunting begins with two brothers and the immense wolf that turns their winter chase into a private war.
A hunter’s letter about woodcock season turns to a rural killing and the local idea of honor that judged it.
A racing tide traps an insurance inspector and an English family on a wreck, creating a New Year he never forgets.
A Paris officer recognizes a former colonial soldier whose chaotic courage and appetite once shaped life inside a blockaded town.
A traveller pauses beside a dark reservoir and hears how two brothers faced a sudden, desperate accident there.
A ferry passenger learns why an old friend’s marriage soured after his once-enchanting English bride became easier to understand.
A chance meeting in a beer hall reveals why a once-privileged schoolmate has spent his adult life drinking at the same table.
