Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Chapter One: Story and Situation -- Chapter Two: Self-Situation and Readability -- Chapter Three: Narratorial Authority and "The Purloined Letter" -- Chapter Four: Seduction Denied: "Sarrasine" and the Impact of Art -- Chapter Five: Seduction Renounced: "Sylvie" as Narrative Act -- Chapter Six: An Invitation to Love: Simplicity of Heart and Textual Duplicity in "Un Cœur Simple" -- Chapter Seven: Not for the Vulgar? The Question of Readership in "The Figure in the Carpet" -- Chapter Eight: Gabriel Conroy Sings for His Supper, or Love Refused ("The Dead") -- Chapter Nine: Authority and Seduction: The Power of Fiction -- Appendix A: Saki, "The Open Window" -- Appendix B: Marcel Schwob, "Les Sans-Gueule" -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W.