Introduction: The painted lady
1. Meeting the butterfly
2. Chasing the clouded yellow
3. Graylings : the birth of a passion
4. Gatekeepers : collecting with Jean Froissart, John Fowles and Vladimir Nabokov
5. Lady Glanville's fritillary
6. At the sign of the chequered skipper
7. The golden hog or the wonderful names of butterflies
8. Seeing red : the admiral
9. Fire and brimstone : butterflies and the imagination
10. Silver washes and pearl borders : painting butterflies
11. Endgame : the large blue and other dropouts
12. The wall or how to protect a butterfly
13. Envoi: Aurora or the daughter of dawn
Appendix: British butterflies.