Balzac's first collection of short stories exploring women's role in society in various conjugal situations -- the daughter marrying against the father's wishes; the young woman marrying for love only to find she is no match for her husband's philandering; the unfaithful wife who brings her family to the brink of ruin; the religious zealot who so poisons her husband's existence so that he decides to lead a double life; the young woman who wishes at all costs to marry an aristocrat and who rejects the man she loves because she does not deem him of noble birth; the lovely, intelligent wife who uses her wiles to bring her straying husband back into the fold. This edition reproduces the text of the 1830 first edition. It comes with a cd-rom containing the scholarly apparatus prepared by Andrew Oliver, a renowned Balzac scholar.