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A collection of thirteen stories by the Irish-American writer Donn Byrne, published in 1923. In the title story, a former Broadway chorus girl is tried in New York for a murder committed ten years earlier; the policeman who brought her back from the South Seas tells the court how a shipwreck changed her. The other stories travel from Ireland to the Andes, from the streets of New York to the biblical times of Delilah and the Queen of Sheba. Lively, moving tales to read one by one.

A German novel from 1909, subtitled “the love paths of the Sintrup brothers”. Philipp, nicknamed Pitt, is secretive and ironic, and nothing truly captures his interest; his younger brother Fox, a plump, vain boy, boasts constantly and believes a great future awaits him. Sons of a manufacturer in a small town, they go off to study and meet very different young women: a pianist from a good family, a future schoolteacher, the daughter of a rich banker. A subtle, slightly melancholy comedy about two opposite characters and their ways of loving.

An English novel. Barrie MacDonald is eighteen and is growing up near Carlisle, close to Scotland, with a stern grandmother who hates the theatre and has let her believe that her mother was dead. When she learns that this mother, an actress, is very much alive, Barrie runs away to find her. She meets a wealthy Scot back from America, who takes her, together with a brother and sister who write travel novels, on a motor tour of Scotland. Told partly by Barrie herself, a fresh romantic comedy full of Scottish landscapes.

Ruined and resolved to die, young Raphaël de Valentin walks into an antique shop, where the dealer gives him a wild ass's skin covered with signs. The talisman grants every wish of its owner, but it shrinks with each wish, and its master's life shrinks with it. Rich overnight, Raphaël begins to count his desires as one counts one's days. The novel explores desire, the spending of one's own life and the gap between wanting and being able, in the Paris of the July Monarchy. It is the first title of Balzac's Philosophical Studies, a philosophical tale rich in social observation.

A historical novel in letters by the American writer William Ware, published in 1838 as a sequel to “Zenobia”. In Rome, after the fall of Palmyra, the nobleman Lucius Manlius Piso writes to his friend Fausta, who has stayed in the East. He tells her about Queen Zenobia, defeated and exiled at Tibur, and about the Emperor Aurelian, a feared warrior who resolves to crush the Christians. Piso, husband of Julia, Zenobia’s daughter, himself already shares this new faith. A vivid picture of third-century Rome and of the clash between two religions.

The memoirs of the American Austin Bidwell, published in 1897. Born in Brooklyn, the author goes to work young in a Wall Street office, acquires a taste for gambling and easy money, and is then drawn in by a New York chief of detectives who sells off stolen bonds. After frauds in Europe and Brazil, he and his brother George, with two accomplices, get the Bank of England to accept forged bills of exchange in 1873. Then come the flight through Ireland, Spain and Cuba, the trial in London, the life sentence and the long years in Chatham prison. A vivid account of 19th-century finance, police and prisons.

An Italian novel subtitled “The Story of a Poor Family”. In Milan, in May 1831, Vittore, a former soldier of Napoleon, dies in poverty. His eldest son, Damiano, becomes the support of his mother, his sister Stella and his younger brother. Damiano dreams of becoming a painter; he has learned drawing in secret from an old, poor artist, but first he must earn enough to keep his family alive. Around him live the humble people of Milan’s outer districts. A tender novel about poverty, duty and the dignity of ordinary people.

American novel published in 1906, set in northern Alabama from 1874 onward. A cotton mill that moved from New England has given rise to Cottontown, a mill village where children work from morning to night. Hillard Watts, a former plantation overseer turned preacher, whom his small congregation calls “the Bishop”, watches over these families, while Richard Travis, the mill’s treasurer, and his recruiter Jud Carpenter keep searching for new workers. Blending humor, faith and melodrama, it is a plea against child labor, written with the racial prejudices of its time.

In New York around 1913, Harvey Forbes, a young American lieutenant with no fortune, comes home from the Philippines and meets Persis Cabot, a rich and very beautiful young woman, at the theatre. Everyone around her already sees her married to Willie Enslee, the richest man in her circle, whom she does not love. Yet Persis, thought incapable of love, finds herself drawn to this officer who lives on his pay alone. Among luxury cars, evenings at the theatre and fashionable dances, everyone watches and judges everyone else. Rupert Hughes portrays a society in which one question decides everything: what will people say?

An English historical novel. In the mid-1260s, England is torn between King Henry III and the barons led by Simon de Montfort. Between Pontefract and Nottingham, Hugh de Monthermer, a young knight and nephew of an old earl who has sided with the barons, loves Lucy de Ashby, daughter of a once-hostile house, whose brother Alured keeps him at a distance. In Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood, a man of the people declared an outlaw, supports Montfort's party. From village festivities to the battle of Evesham, a tale of adventure and love that brings a medieval civil war back to life.

At the end of 1853, Newton Norcliff, a young lieutenant in a British lancer regiment, learns that his regiment will leave in the spring for war in the East. He spends his last leave in Scotland, at his uncle’s house, near Lady Louisa, whom he loves and who is also courted by Berkeley, a cold and cunning officer of his own regiment. The two young people become secretly engaged, then Newton sails for the Crimea. Told by Newton himself, this historical novel moves from garrison life to the battlefield, up to the charge at Balaklava. A former officer, James Grant portrays a regiment on campaign and the anxiety of a love kept secret.

Paul Clifford, a young man from a modest background, is drawn into a life of crime after a childhood marked by injustice. Charismatic and intelligent, he moves in a world where appearances and identities blur. As he rises through the ranks of criminality, his destiny forces him to confront his choices and their consequences. This novel blends social criticism with dramatic intrigue, highlighting the flaws of the judicial system. The author builds a captivating story about ambition, marginality, and morality.

American novel from 1916, set in Chicago in the early twentieth century. Rose Stanton, a lively, independent student who intends to study law, marries within a few weeks Rodney Aldrich, a wealthy lawyer she met by chance. Settled in a fine house, surrounded by servants and soon the mother of twins, she realizes that she is expected to be a decorative wife, with no real role or work. The novel follows her struggle to exist in her own right, to the point of trying to earn her own living in the world of the theater. A frank, modern look at marriage and the place of women.