Another collection of short stories, spanning the early 1800s up through the second World War. Some overall conclusions:1) Maybe I need to obtain a collection of Balzac's short stories. I didn't really care for Pere Goriot, but all the short stories I've read are quite excellent.
2) My first experience with Emile Zola was also quite excellent. I definitely need to read more of him. In "Attack on the Mill", he combines poetic detail, living characters, and a dramatic story with as much skill as Hugo or Dickens.
3) Same goes for Saint-Exupery. He can get a little wordy at times, but he is a true mystic, and his tale of survival in the African desert is quite gripping. I guess The Little Prince wasn't a fluke.
Many of the stories here merit a full review all on their own, but I will do them the violence of, as the little birdie in my picture might do, "tweeting" the reviews...
"La Grande Breteche", Honore de Balzac - Perfectly paced Gothic tale, similar in style to Poe.
"An Episode of the Terror", Honore de Balzac - A mysterious stranger cares for a priest and some nuns in hiding during the Reign of Terror, but he conceals his own secret.
"The Venus of Ille", Prosper Merimee - A great supernatural/macabre episode, also similar to Poe.
"The Marquise", George Sand - Insightful account of the love between a noblewoman and an actor.
"Mimi Pinson", Alfred de Musset - Sympathetic portrayal of friendship and poverty in Paris.
"One of Cleopatra's Nights", Theophile Gautier - Easily the worst short story I have ever read. Paragraph after long paragraph of meaningless Egyptology spew, mixed with mild 19th century pornography in an attempt to keep the reader interested in the faceless, characterless happenings.
"A Simple Heart", Gustave Flaubert - At first poignant in its portrayal of the lonely life of a devoted serving maid, but becomes repulsive toward the end when she idolizes her dead pet. Curse you, Flaubert, why did you have to ruin a story that started out so well? ("It's not my fault, I write the Truth!" Bah...)
"Herodias", Gustave Flaubert - Historical fiction about the day John the Baptist was beheaded. Interesting, and of course well-written. Some archaeological spew, but not nearly as much as Gautier.
"The Torture of Hope", Villiers de L'Isle-Adam - Spanish Inquisition vignette with enough anti-Semitism to spoil the story even if it had been good.
"The Elixir of Father Gaucher", Alphonse Daudet - Humorous tale of a monk who falls victim to the liquor he created, the sales of which are vital to the abbey's economy.
"The Last Lesson", Alphonse Daudet - Surprisingly moving patriotic tale about the Germans taking over Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War.
"The Attack on the Mill", Emile Zola - More Franco-Prussian War: A mill owner tries to protect his daughter and future son-in-law when the Prussian army marches in.
"The Procurator of Judea", Anatole France - Another historical fiction about Pontius Pilate's retirement days, with an ironic comment on how little a person can understand his or her historical legacy.
"Crainquebille", Anatole France - Moving tale of a peasant wrongfully imprisoned for a week and the consequences that came after he was released.
"The Diamond Necklace", Guy de Maupassant - As good the second time as it was the first.
"Madame Tellier's Excursion", Guy de Maupassant - Darkly funny story of a madame who takes her girls to the country for her niece's confirmation.
"Vain Beauty", Guy de Maupassant - A beleaguered wife exacts an ingenious revenge against her jealous husband.
"The Sacrifice", Georges Duhamel - Passionately told account by a field doctor of a double amputation and the patient's recovery during World War I.
"The Escape", Joseph Kessel - A leader of the French Resistance during World War II locked in an internment camp plans his escape.
"Prisoner of the Sand", Antoine de Saint-Exupery - Two men crash their plane in the African desert at night and strive toward rescue in the limited time left to them.
"Tank Trap", Andre Malraux - Overly wordy account of a tank falling into a pit, but with some genuinely good scenes, including an examination of men certain of death.
"The Wall", Jean-Paul Sartre - More men facing certain death, this time at the hands of a firing squad in fascist Spain - I'm sensing a theme here... but since this is Sartre, it's more about how rotten it is to live. Blech.
"The Professor and the Mussels", Edith Thomas - Heartfelt and quietly rebellious vignette about an elderly couple living in German-occupied France.
Arbitrary rating: 4 out of 5 novels in miniature
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