Table of Contents

Introduction
Marquis de Sade: The husband who said mass
Stendhal: Vanina Vanini
Theophile Gautier: The coffee pot
Honore de Balzac: The message
Prosper Merimee: The Venus of Ille
Emile Zola: Story of a Madman
Leon Daudet: The last lesson
Gustave Flaubert: A Simple Heart
Guy de Maupassant: The Necklace
Guy de Maupassant: At Sea
Villiers de l'Isle-Adam: Gloomy Tale, Gloomier Teller
Joris-Karl Huysmans: Knapsack at the ready
Renee Vivien: The Lady with the She-Wolf
Marcel Ayme: The Walking Stick
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette: Gribiche
Jean-Paul Sartre: The Wall
Georges Simenon: The man in the street
Birago Diop: An Errand
Albert Camus: The Guest
Simone de Beauvoir: Monologue
Michel Tournier: The Lily of the Valley Lay-by
Christiane Baroche: Do you remember the rue d'Orchampt?
Herve Guibert: The checkup
Assia Djebar: There is No Exile
Rene Depestre: The Negro with the White Shadow
Frederic Fajardie: The Underwear of the Woman Up Above
Annie Saumont: The Finest Stroy in the World
Monique Proulx: Public Transit

Reviews

`Review from previous edition This is a delightful collection, ideal either for Tube reading or for savouring at greater length'
Daily Telegraph 18/5/02
`wide-ranging collection . . . All the greats are here . . .'
Sunday Telegraph 19/05/2002
`The anthology takes a tour through the high spots of French nineteenth-century literature'
Katy Emck, Times Literary Supplement