A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
The narrator’s attitude toward the story.
An upholsterer explains how a cherished fishing spot, two furious wives, and one unlucky punch brought him before a jury.
A contented clerk dismisses his beloved wife’s glittering jewels as paste until widowhood forces him to have one valued.
A wealthy friend’s will leaves a married couple arguing over whether reputation matters more than one million francs.
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.
A clerk’s dissatisfied wife borrows a glittering necklace for one night among the wealthy, then pays dearly when it vanishes.
A lonely woman adopts an orphan for love, then begins to fear the silent young man growing up inside her house.
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.
On her way to a lover’s apartment, a Parisian society wife discovers that habit can exhaust even the most forbidden affair.
A bored baroness copies a window signal she sees across the street and discovers that curiosity can be taken as a business offer.
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 disabled beggar, rejected from every familiar door, sets out hungry across a winter landscape governed by suspicion and contempt.
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 suitor under constant observation begins a secret affair, then mistakes the wrong woman at a château window.
An anticlerical village joiner wants a lucrative church contract, but the parish priest sets a spiritual price for the work.
A ferry passenger learns why an old friend’s marriage soured after his once-enchanting English bride became easier to understand.
A terrified Prussian straggler searches occupied Normandy for the safest possible enemy: someone willing to take him prisoner.
An ardent love letter receives a meticulous reply from a man who finds romantic language more dangerous to desire than silence.
A poor scholarship student makes one accidental movement during an exam and must decide whether winning matters more than his principles.
The timid inventor of a working flying machine becomes a public hero—and discovers that everyone expects him to risk the first flight.
