International Short Stories: French

by Various

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Short Stories, French Literature, Classics, France, Language

310 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1910

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mirror Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?........not the wicked ole queen who rules her kingdom with lies and cruelty.....that's for sure!

Super short and repulsively good! Thank you GR friend Glenn for sharing the link!

[Proustitute (on hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really wide-ranging collection of French short stories in translation from the mid- to late-nineteenth century showing the shift from mid-century naturalism and realism to fin-de-siecle experiments with narrative form, aesthetics, and the movement toward modernism. Most editions I've seen listed lack a proper breakdown of the contents, so I'll list this here so anyone interested has an idea of the breadth and scope of the stories collected by the editor, Francis J. Reynolds, in this 1910 edition. One presumes that, in spite of the prominent names collected here, Reynolds's project excludes any female writers due to the time period and perhaps his own editorial sensibilities (or prejudices).

Contents:
Francois Coppee, "A Piece of Bread"
Honore de Balzac, "The Elixir of Life"
Paul Bourget, "The Age for Love"
Prosper Merimee, "Mateo Falcone"
Catulle Mendes, "The Mirror"
Ludovic Halevy, "My Nephew Joseph"
Erickmann-Chatrian, "A Forest Betrothal"
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, "Zadig the Babylonian"
Guy de Maupassant, "Abandoned"
Paul de Kock, "The Guilty Secret"
Eugene Francois Vidocq, "Jean Monette"
Alexandre Dumas, "Solange"
Rene Bazin, "The Birds in the Letter-Box"
Emile Zola, "Jean Gourdon's Four Days"
Clemence Robert, "Baron de Trenck"
Henry Murger "The Passage of the Red Sea"
Marcel Prevost, "The Woman and the Cat"
Alain Rene Le Sage, "Gil Blas and Dr. Sangrado"
Victor Hugo, "A Fight with a Cannon"
A. Cheneviere, "Tonton"
Alphonse Daudet, "The Last Lesson"
Alfred de Musset, "Croisilles"
Jean Alcard, "The Vase of Clay"

[Eadweard · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Just the short story / fairy tale)



"For if someone thinks you are beautiful, and loses no chance to tell you so, he is almost as good as a mirror. "

[Dione Basseri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure 9 out of 10 readers will pick this book up purely because it's a collection of old French stories. If so, good for you. You probably got exactly what you wanted, even if the stories are in English. (I mean, if you only speak French, not English, then probably not good.) But for me...just generally didn't like it.

While the first two volumes of "International Short Stories" tended to include quite a lot of classics, this one...well, I don't know the French classics, but none of these stories really appealed to me, for any reason. I think the closest to a "best" story would be "Zadig the Babylonian," which, itself, just drags on and on. Not so appealing. And most of the rest...well, the French volume of the series sure wins out on sexism. Shesh.

I can't see myself ever recommending this book to anyone, really. There are far better-curated anthologies of classic literature out there. Go find them.

This book is in the public domain. You can find a free audio version at Librivox.org, or a free etext at Gutenberg.org.

[Flo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only the short story The Mirror.

[Julie MacKay · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is hard to rate a book of short stories by different authors accurately, but I think overall I have to give it 2 stars, or 2.5 stars. Some stories were better than others. Some were horrible. Some had dark endings. And some I feel like I didn’t quite ‘get’ the message that the author was trying to communicate, but perhaps that is my lack of understanding, rather than a problem with the story. Some stories were good though, but overall it’s not a book that I would be recommending in any hurry.

[Regina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the experience of reading this sewn, cloth binding, printing press book published in 1910. More than that, I enjoyed the stories, which all had a beginning, middle and end, made sense, told a story, were thought-provoking or at least smile-provoking, rather than so many more modern short stories that I read and say, "Okay. What was the point of that.?"

I can appreciate slice-of-life, but it's refreshing to read real stories.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars (liked it)

A nice variety of short stories of both well known and lesser known French authors.

[LiB · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some historically important stories here, but as a collection it is awful. The editor has chosen to represent French literary short stories with a sample of the most nasty-minded, petty or misogynistic stories that were available to him at the time. There are multiple stories about old men "in love" with decades younger women for example, in which the sympathy is entirely with the old man, lots of stories about women who are trivial, stupid and vain from the viewpoint of men who "love" them, one particularly repellent story in which a man decides to kill what he think is his fiancée's pet cat, and Merimée's "Matteo Falcone" in which an abusive *** of a father kills his 10-year old son for age-appropriate behaviour under adult pressure. The latter is a story of literary significance historically and well written, so I understand why the author might put it in a survey of French short stories, but I don't understand why he would bundle it in with a lot of other depressingly cruel drek unless the cruelty was what appealed to him.

[Aurel Mihai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took several weeks to read this book because each short story in it deserves a bit of time to properly digest. It didn't seem right to read more than one a day and I don't think I would have appreciated it nearly as much had I taken in the entire thing at once. Many of the stories in this collection are real gems. None of them are particularly difficult reads, but more than one story left me thinking. At the same time none of the stories in this book left me feeling like the author was purposely feeding me a cliched, rehashed bit of pulp to tug at my emotions, the way many modern fiction authors do. I'd also add that, at least with regard to the authors in this book that I've read elsewhere, the works here are representative of the authors of this collection so it makes a nice introduction to classic French literature or an unexpectedly nice collection of lesser known works from some familiar authors.

[Jim Manis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Late 18th through 19th century French short stories. Interesting to see the development of the genre through that period. The stories generally have a fable like quality even when written in the literary genre of realism. The influence of Poe is evident in at least one story. Another story is referenced by Thomas Pikitty in "Capital." The language can be a bit tiresome, strained.

[Lynne Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful introduction to classic French short stories. Although I've read a lot of French authors over the years, I was pleasantly surprised to discover some "new" voices. New meaning from way back in the olden days. I will definitely get my hands on some of those novels.