"Taking as his setting the glamour and heady sophistication of fin-de-siecle. Parisian salon society, Proust here presents a series of sketches and short stories depicting the lives, love, manners and motivations of a host of characters. Amorous entanglements, idle vanities and feigned morality are all viewed with a characteristically knowing eye. By turns cuttingly satirical and bitterly moving, Proust's portrayals are layered with imagery and feeling, whether they be of the aspiring Bouvard and Pecuchet, the deluded Madame de Breyves, or of Baldassare Silvande saturated with regret, memory and tragic understanding in the face of death. "--Jacket.