Crucial Instances is a 1901 short story collection by Edith Wharton.

The book contains a collection of seven stories:

• "The Duchess at Prayer"
• "The Angel at the Grave"
• "The Recovery"
• "Copy: A Dialogue"
• "The Rembrandt"
• "The Moving Finger"
• "The Confessional"

The story The Duchess at Prayer is a rewriting of Honoré de Balzac's short story La Grande Bretèche (1831).^[1]