Selected Short Stories

The fifty stories that Balzac wrote during his working life display all the qualities of his novels, and many of them feature the charaters that throng theComedie Humaine. Nevertheless, while they do offer an interesting counterpoint to the great novels, the stories as themselves. For this volume Sylvia Raphael has chosen twelve stories, includingAn Incident in the Reign of Terror, The Atheist's Massand The Red Inn. All of them reveal Balzac's ability to excite curiosity, his intituitive grasp of what made other lives tick and his instinctive understanding of the contradicions in human behavior. El Verdugo -- Domestic peace -- A study in feminine psychology -- An incident in the reign of terror -- The conscript -- The Red Inn -- The purse -- La Grande Bretèche -- A tragedy by the sea -- The atheist's Mass -- Facino Cane -- Pierre Grassou.