The Penguin Book of French Short Stories

The Penguin Book of French Short Stories is comprised of two volumes, and the first volume spans almost 400 years, from the 16th century to the ​fin de siecle. As with my review of The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories, I am focusing on just six stories from this collection of more than forty. If The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories revolved around limitations, hardships or eccentricities, then it can be said that many stories in The Penguin Book of French Short Stories are all about absurdities, lost chances, and strange phenomena.

A Passion In The Desert by Honoré de Balzac – ★★★★1/2

“…they ended as all great passions do end – by a misunderstanding. For some reason one suspects the other of treason; they don’t come to an explanation through pride, and quarrel and part from sheer obstinacy.’

This is a story about the French expedition in Upper Egypt. A French soldier is captured by a group of Arabs, and after escaping the “death march”, he finds himself all alone in a desert without a horse. He has already resigned himself to dying when he spots a sleeping panther, whose paws are covered in blood, sleeping next to him. As ever astute when it comes to human relation and unsaid emotion, Balzac concocted a curious story laced with suspense about a man’s relationship with a wild animal.

No Tomorrow by Vivant Denon – ★★★★

Vivant Denon (1747-1825) was a diplomat, artist, Egyptologist, and probably only then a fiction writer, but this is quite a tale of an attempt at erotic conquest. The narrator is a young and lustful lover of the Countess, but he is cornered one night by her best friend, Madame de T. who, in turn, is hoping for the reunion with her husband in a mansion she has not visited in ages. Even though supposedly still in love with the Countess, the narrator becomes smitten with Madame de T as their “souls meet” that magical night, or do they…This is a ravishing tale of longing, lust, and mind games lovers play, ridiculing the theatricality of the eighteenth century French society. The multitude of whimsies, the masks, the falseness of presentation, and the sheer swiftness of love affairs in the Parisian high society at that time meant that one never quite knew whose pawn one was, what game was being played at any particular time, and what amorous advances were worth it in the end.

The Sans-Gueules by Marcel Schwob – ★★★★

This is a very short story by French symbolist writer Marcel Schwob (1867 – 1905), but it leaves a lasting impression. After a blast, there were two injured “figures” discovered – both men with faces so badly damaged as to be unrecognisable. A widow of some man arrives and says that one of barely-alive men must be her husband. The problem is that she does not know which, and the two men cannot provide any answers. She takes home both of them. It is likely that a parable was intended here about the height of absurdity emerging when there is so much devastation, hurt and inconsolable grief.  

The Mysterious Correspondent by Marcel Proust – ★★★★

In this story, young woman Françoise has two concerns on her mind: the debilitating state of her friend Christiane, and the annoying, though flattering, letter of hidden passion addressed to her by a mysterious correspondent. She realises quite late that the two concerns preoccupying her mind are linked. This elegantly written story stirs much emotion, but given the nature of the story, it would also have probably benefited from more mystery, intrigue or subtlety in the second half – even if we can guess the identity of the mysterious correspondent.

The Mummy’s Foot by Théophile Gautier – ★★★1/2

This is one fantastical tale of a young man who purchases in one antiques shop the Pharaoh’s daughter Princess Hermonthis’s mummified foot to be used as a paperweight, and finds that his reality shifts and transforms. I loved the whimsy in the story, even if it awes us now much less than it did in 1840. Dramatist Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) penned quite a number of supernatural stories, for example, see his novella La Morte Amoureuse [1836], where a priest falls in love with a female vampire.

Death by Advertising by Émile Zola – ★★★1/2

“Advertising attacked his mind as well as his body“. This is a cautionary tale from Zola (1840-1902) about a man named Pierre Landryof who is in love with “modern progress” and the helpfulness of modern advertisement. He surrounded himself with all the latest gadgets, but seems to be oblivious to the fact that ads also come with exaggeration, fakery and misrepresentation. This is quite a straightforward story of obstinacy and one’s blind belief in mass media. Undoubtedly, it had a stronger impact in Zola’s time.