Pastels: dix portraits de femmes

A collection of ten concise psychological sketches examines women placed across social ranks, from established aristocracy to bourgeois and demi-monde milieus. Each portrait observes manners, ambitions, and private motives, contrasting authentic privilege with imitations of elegance and the social performances that preserve distance between classes. The narratives analyze how wealth, reputation, and fashion shape relationships, vanities, and compromises, and they reflect on the moral and emotional effects of leisure, consumption, and social striving through careful, detached commentary.