The Carcellini Emerald, With Other Tales

A collection of short stories and sketches that examine late 19th-century urban society through satire, melodrama, and sympathy. The opening long tale follows an urbane social leader whose glamorous reputation conceals a mysterious past and strained friendships, particularly with a college chum who endures financial ruin and chooses honest labor. Other pieces range from comic mishaps at readings and collegiate adventures to romantic and domestic episodes, a tale of a missing violin, and stories about women negotiating reputation and independence. Throughout, the prose observes manners, ambition, social pretension, and the private costs of public status with ironic detail and steady narrative restraint.