Three Lives and Tender Buttons

&quote;Three Lives&quote; is a series of novellas, three independent stories set in the fictional town of Bridgepoint. The first story is that of &quote;The Good Anna&quote;, about Anna Federner, a servant of &quote;solid lower middle-class south german stock.&quote; The second story is that of &quote;Melanctha&quote;, who is the daughter of a black father and mixed-race mother. The third story is that of &quote;The Gentle Lena&quote;, which follows the life and death of the titular Lena, a German girl brought to Bridgepoint by an aunt. To this is added &quote;Tender Buttons&quote;, which is Stein's most famous work of hermetic poetry.