A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
Recurring elements in the story’s premise.
Two men agree to fight with knives in a house said to be haunted.
A man becomes a social celebrity by making his nose the subject of a supposedly learned science.
A solemn student prankster tests a famous duelist’s pride with an insult designed to turn etiquette against him.
A celebrated society marksman provokes a duel, then spends a sleepless night confronting the fear his reputation cannot admit.
A peaceable French merchant endures a Prussian officer’s insults until one final humiliation forces him to fight.
A duel between two dragoons reveals the secret arrangement of a widow known for piety and strict respectability.
A young man explains how his mother’s final testament exposed the truth behind a brutal country household.
7 stories
