Daphne du Maurier 52歳のときの短篇集です。タイトルが象徴するように、一歩間違えば破綻する結婚生活、そして同様に、一歩間違えば狂気になりかねない精神生活の中で書かれたようです。Paranormalな要素のある作品も含まれています。概して私小説的色彩が濃いですが、いかにもMaurierらしい作品群です。私は好きですが、評価はかなり分かれるでしょう。
＊Alibi
- James Fenton : embarks on double life, first to a motiveless murderer then to an artist as Mr. Sims, but finally falsely charged
- Edna : his wife, finally criticize his art as daubs
- Anna Kaufman : an Austrian, subleases her room to Mr. Sims, kills herself and her son after premature delivery
- Johnnie : her son
＊The Blue Lenses
- Marda West : After eye operation, with blue lenses sees humans as animals but with new lenses sees herself as a doe
＊Ganymede
- An English classical scholar spends holiday in Venice, infatuated with a Ganymede, and gets into a disaster
＊The pool
- Deborah finds an entrance to another world near the pond in the wood. But she loses the key of the turnstile by menarchi
＊The Archduchess
- Archduchess Paula becomes the only one surviver of the royal family of imaginary country Ronda after the revolution.
＊The menace
- Barry Jeans, The Menace, the film star of the silent era rejuvenates himself by meeting a childhood friend.
＊The Chamois
- Stephen goes to Greece with his wife to shoot a chamois. A sort of cofession of Dphne’s married life.
＊The Lordly Ones
- The retarded child Ben sees and becomes a member of the lordly ones in the moor, but is hindered by his father.
