Contents include short stories and short novels as well as selections from longer works including author's autobiography "A Backward Glance."

Introduction -- Backward glance / Chapter III, section 2, "Little girl" -- Pelican, from the Greater inclination -- Rembrandt, from Crucial instances -- House of mirth, book 1 -- Eyes, from tales of men and ghosts -- Ethan Frome -- Bunner sisters, from Xingu -- With the tide, from Twelve poems -- Age of innocence, book 1 --- False dawn, from old New York -- Old man, from old New York -- Bottle of Perrier, from certain people -- Pomegranate seed, from the world over -- Backward glance, chapter VIII, "Henry James."