Spanning the centuries from the late eighteenth to the late twentieth, this collection opens with a rumbustious tale from the Marquis de Sade, takes in the masters of the nineteenth century, from Stendhal and Balzac to Maupassant, and reaches to Quebec, Africa, and the French Carribbean in the twentieth century.

• Introduction


• The husband who said mass


• Vanina Vanini


• The coffee pot


• The message


• The Venus of Ille


• Story of a Madman


• The last lesson


• A Simple Heart


• The Necklace


• At Sea


• Gloomy Tale, Gloomier Teller


• Knapsack at the ready


• The Lady with the She-Wolf


• The Walking Stick


• Gribiche


• The Wall


• The man in the street


• An Errand


• The Guest


• Monologue


• The Lily of the Valley Lay-by


• Do you remember the rue d'Orchampt?


• The checkup


• There is No Exile


• The Negro with the White Shadow


• The Underwear of the Woman Up Above


• The Finest Stroy in the World


• Public Transit