A young officer sees the beautiful Madame Jules Desmarets in a disreputable Paris street and suspects an affair. His spying draws in her husband, a rich stockbroker, and leads to the mysterious Ferragus, chief of the Dévorants and one of the Thirteen, a secret brotherhood above the law, whose bond with Clémence is not what anyone supposes.
The first story of Balzac’s History of the Thirteen, part melodrama and part portrait of Paris. Download the free EPUB.