A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
What would you like to read about?
A polite writer grants an aspiring dramatist half an hour to read her work and discovers that she has brought five acts.
A sheltered young woman mistakes theatrical passion for real love and follows a touring actor into his brutal world.
An indecent antique passes from one grateful professional to another as each admirer searches for a respectable way to lose it.
A strong old actor falls ill far from home, while his theatrical companions mistake remedies and affection for understanding.
An idle landscape painter befriends two sisters and finds love complicated by a fierce argument over art, work, and social duty.
Once a year, a lazy village drunk becomes an exacting artist whose work belongs to an entire community.
A village choirmaster drills his singers for months to impress a visiting count who may not care to hear them.
On Easter night, a ferry monk mourns the gentle hymn writer whose words the celebrating monastery never learned to value.
A self-assured critic and his widowed sister grow apart when her search for moral certainty challenges his literary convictions.
A seasoned prosecutor discovers that reasoning with his seven-year-old son is harder than addressing any court.
A minor journalist turns one night’s writing into a sacred ordeal, forcing his household to serve the drama of his creativity.
A wet graveyard walk leads to an actor drinking beside the neglected grave of the man who shaped and ruined his life.
A lively young wife turns a minor illness into a household drama, while her devoted husband guards a patient who enjoys the part.
A penniless painter prepares to leave his summer lodging while dreaming of fame and avoiding the young woman who believes in his future.
A society hostess dazzled by artistic celebrity overlooks the quiet distinction of the doctor she has married.
A vain provincial actor’s boast about a conquest turns dangerous when one listener knows the woman and demands satisfaction.
At his daughter’s requiem, a proud village shopkeeper tries to reconcile religious judgment with the child he barely knew.
Psyche Zenobia climbs an Edinburgh steeple in search of material for a sensation article and puts her head through a clock face.
An ambitious literary society secretary asks a famous editor to teach her the formula for a fashionable tale of extreme sensation.
A lost traveler follows an unusually beautiful lane to a cottage where every detail of the house and valley shows careful design.
An heir uses an immense fortune to create a private landscape meant to surpass nature without losing its beauty.
A wealthy young man rejects status and politics to treat landscape gardening as an art and a plan for a happy life.
A barber's son explains how plagiarism, paid praise, personal attacks, and business deals made him a national literary authority.
A wounded traveler finds a portrait so lifelike that he searches a book for the story of the woman it depicts.
