"A Game of Billiards." Alphonse Daudet.

One-minute review: An exaggerated, I hope, contrast between the thoughtless irresponsibility of the officer class while the mud- and rain-drenched and weary enlisted men await orders and are slaughtered as the battle comes closer because the marshal, their leader, is inside a chateau, playing a game of billiards.

75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World’s Literature. Ed. Roger B. Goodman. New York: Bantam Books. 1961.