Fr Shrt Style of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Some of the best examples of French literary genius are to be seen in this volume of twenty stories from acknowledged masters over a wide range of subjects, and twelve of these stories have been specially translated for this edition, the remainder being all copyright translations chosen for their intrinsic merit.In the short story the development of character by the nature of the medium is limited and the play upon situation paramount. The book includes selections from De Maupassant, in particular the famous story of The Necklace. Here, as in all of De Maupassant's work, denouement is all-important and what Madame Forestier has to say in the very last sentence not only provides a complete curtain but allows the reader's imagination to brood over possible events beyond the tale. With the instinctiveness of genius De Maupassant knew he was not at his best in the larger form, that the short story was his genre. He therefore handled situation and character in a remarkably light manner, continuing their relationship through everyday events. This material, as Professor Green, the authority on French literature who introduces this volume, noted, does not readily lend itself to the novelist, but De Maupassant' discovered that in order to write perfect short stories it is not necessary to imagine queer situations for ordinary people, or queer people in ordinary situations. By portraying quite ordinary people in contact with very ordinary situations, he found that he could all the more convincingly interpret, throw into relief the essential queerness, not of things or people, but of life itself.'