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.

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