A continuation of Balzac's collection of short stories exploring women's role in society, particularly in marriage. Passion and adultery are constant themes where wives are beautiful, intelligent, courageous and resourceful while husbands are dull, unimaginative and frequently vindictive. The collection is famous for its portrait of the Femme de trente ans so admired by Sainte-Beuve. This edition reproduces the text of the 1832 edition. It comes with a cd-rom containing the scholarly apparatus prepared by Andrew Oliver, a renowned Balzac scholar.