A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
How the prose reads.
A driver recalls how his little sister carried a village’s money through a forest after robbers attacked their father.
A self-dramatizing widow offers a young writer the tragic story of her life aboard a train.
On a Black Sea steamer, a disillusioned landowner recounts how his worship of a beautiful neighbor drew him across Europe.
An anonymous love letter sends a respectable married man to a garden rendezvous, where an unexpected rival refuses to leave.
A hotel waiter misplaces a piano-tuner’s boots, sending their anxious owner into an increasingly dangerous mix-up.
After a ball, a wealthy manufacturer drinks through the night and confesses that money has made every relationship feel bought.
A self-declared man of violent temper tries to study dog licences while a determined young woman assigns him a romance.
Two tipsy lawyers take a wrong turn after a long walk from the station and break into the wrong country cottage.
A Russian landowner’s casual nationalism turns a meal with his dependent French companion into an ordeal of insult and control.
A colonel’s widow demands protection from a scandalous hotel guest, then learns one detail that changes her view.
A nervous wife sees a man enter through the kitchen window and sends her sleepy husband into the dark to defend the household’s virtue.
A wet graveyard walk leads to an actor drinking beside the neglected grave of the man who shaped and ruined his life.
An impatient scholar waits to dismiss his late young secretary, then finds that their digressions are the part of the evening he values most.
A school director promises a disabled teacher a lifeline, then discovers how quickly principle yields to well-connected pressure.
On a remote railway line, an engineer’s late-night argument leads him to confess the human cost of his youthful nihilism.
A man tries to explain why the ordinary habits that once irritated him become forgivable when they belong to the woman he loves.
An opera star’s quiet night is interrupted by a husband whose grand business plans always require her money.
A lively young wife turns a minor illness into a household drama, while her devoted husband guards a patient who enjoys the part.
A weary court official reaches his summer villa hungry for dinner and rest, only to find that family life has no place ready for him.
A ticket inspector vows to reform, but each attempt to perform his duty only makes a sick passenger’s night worse.
A frightened surveyor invents a fearsome reputation to protect himself on a night journey—and makes his driver even more afraid.
A dressmaker’s daughter shops for trimmings while a devoted clerk warns that the student she loves may never treat her as an equal.
A boastful young lover challenges a lawyer to argue him out of marriage—and discovers how quickly conviction can yield to eloquence.
One accidental sneeze sends a timid clerk into an escalating panic over rank, manners, and official displeasure.
