A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
Where does the story take place?
A doctor’s attempt to awaken an intellectually disabled girl’s mind leads her family into a marriage that makes affection another form of confinement.
A dazzling Mediterranean boat ride turns from news of disaster to a friend’s indecorous tale about snow.
A lonely Parisian’s plan for a generous Christmas supper with a stranger develops an alarming complication before bedtime.
A wealthy idler devotes himself to earning the red ribbon he has coveted since childhood, despite having done nothing to deserve it.
A retired notary asks for a divorce after discovering the ingenious history behind his wife’s advertised fortune.
A learned provincial doctor finds a manuscript that seems to settle the mystery of the soul—and lets one doctrine consume his reason and household.
Lonely and aging, a Parisian baron travels south to meet the grown son he secretly supported but has never seen.
A man who believes himself untouched by age meets the woman he once adored and sees twelve lost years all at once.
A caustic observer attacks Parisian politicians, journalists, and friends whose charm masks fickle loyalties and flexible principles.
A letter from a former lover forces an aging bachelor to compare his remembered youth with the man he has become.
A lonely traveler reunites with a boastful school friend whose lavish home hides an unexpected family business.
A boulevardier’s sympathy for a young widow in Montmartre Cemetery leads to an affair—and a question about who is hunting whom.
A confirmed bachelor plans to marry a near stranger because one empty armchair has made solitude unbearable.
After four years at sea, a sailor returns to Marseille and meets a woman whose questions turn a night of celebration into dread.
Spring fever draws a young man toward a stranger on the Seine, until another passenger offers an urgent warning about love.
A married couple stages an illicit evening together, only for honest questions to become more stimulating than the disguise.
A major turns military discipline on an entire fortified town for the sake of one forbidden meeting with a married woman.
In a quiet Paris garden, a young law student befriends two forgotten dancers who still inhabit the manners of another century.
A bachelor’s playful affair takes a nervous turn when a fortune-teller links a beloved black cat to a past romantic disaster.
A timid husband’s devotion to his son is shaken by a charge that turns family love into an unbearable question.
A society observer explains why a fashionable countess is said to have killed her daughter without committing a crime.
A rebellious law student smuggles a shopgirl into his strict Breton landlady’s house and learns her rules have unexpected limits.
A lover of darkness wanders through Paris as the familiar city falls silent and dawn seems to recede beyond reach.
A poor clerk spends a rare bonus on a grand family outing and a hired horse meant to restore his aristocratic dignity.
