Project Gutenberg 2005-08-01 Public domain in the USA. 509 Zangwill, Israel 1864 1926 Zangwill, I. (Israel) The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes The grey wig -- Chassé-croisé -- The woman beater -- The eternal feminine -- The silent sisters -- The big bow mystery -- Merely Mary Ann -- The serio-comic governess. E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, M. M. Moffet, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team "The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes" by Israel Zangwill is a collection of fictional narratives written in the early 20th century. The work appears to explore themes related to aging, social status, and the human condition through the lens of its main characters, two elderly women navigating their lives in a Parisian hotel. These characters, Madame Valière and Madame Dépine, are depicted as having a complex relationship marked by mutual resentment, jealousy over appearances, and a desire for social acceptance. The opening of the volume introduces readers to Madame Valière and Madame Dépine, two aging women living in the Hôtel des Tourterelles. Both women are characterized by their brown wigs and their contrasting personalities; Madame Valière, who has a noble past, presents a dignified exterior despite ongoing struggles, while Madame Dépine embodies a more resentful, bitter attitude towards her circumstances. Their mundane lives are disrupted by the arrival of Madame la Propriétaire, whose grey wig symbolizes an aspiration they both secretly share. In this opening portion, Zangwill deftly illustrates the dynamics and tensions that arise from their isolation and their longing for connection, setting the stage for the deeper explorations of identity and societal expectations in the stories that follow. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 74.7 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- Fiction PR Text Category: Short Stories 798876 2025-10-07T06:53:05.955979 text/html 810905 2020-12-12T07:41:08 text/html 407137 2025-10-07T06:53:17.895921 application/epub+zip 417472 2025-10-07T06:53:09.626018 application/epub+zip 390001 2025-10-07T06:53:08.192038 application/epub+zip 749650 2025-10-07T06:53:24.445898 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 701083 2025-10-07T06:53:16.882004 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 590146 2022-09-08T05:13:39.520152 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 763837 2025-10-07T06:53:03.852012 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 763712 2020-12-12T07:41:07 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 763734 2020-12-12T07:41:08 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 20163 2025-10-07T06:53:24.584913 application/rdf+xml 16095 2025-10-07T06:53:08.710991 image/jpeg 3787 2025-10-07T06:53:08.452970 image/jpeg 301134 2020-12-12T07:41:08 application/octet-stream application/zip 309113 2020-12-12T07:41:08 application/octet-stream application/zip 300987 2020-12-12T07:41:08 application/octet-stream application/zip 397490 2025-10-07T06:53:06.017996 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia