Note: First published in Gil Blas, 12 June 1883, with the signature Maufrigneuse.

Synopsis: The narrator's friend proposes to show him one of the curiosities of the region: the "Mother of Monsters," a woman who keeps giving birth to deformed children. In her youth she became pregnant and disguised her shape with a tight corset; the child was born a monster and she sold him to a sideshow for good money. Realizing that this is a source of income, she deliberately creates more monster pregnancies with this method. The narrator compares her to an equally monstrous mother who wore corsets while pregnant in order to be fashionable.