"The Corn Dies." Jean Giono.

This was the time when tractor power did not exist and the only power was manpower, wielding a scythe on farm after farm in the broiling heat. Harvesting the corn, exhaustion made palpable. The back-breaking work of the harvest in the merciless heat of the sun, day after day, farm after farm. A good story to explain the way it was before tractor power. Excruciating details.

Fifty Great European Short Stories. Ed. Edward and Elizabeth Huberman. New York: Bantam Books. 1971.

"Our Lady's Juggler." Anatole France.

A medieval romance. The juggler has only one gift to offer to Our Lady, Mary, the Mother of God to whom he is devoted. One day, he juggles before her likeness on the altar and is about to be taken away by a priest and some others for blasphemy when the likeness of Mary, the Mother of God, comes to life and steps down from the altar to wipe the juggler’s sweat off his brow with the folds of her gown.

Fifty Great European Short Stories. Ed. Edward and Elizabeth Huberman. New York: Bantam Books. 1971.

"The Thief." Fyodor Dostoevsky.

The narrator rents a bed and a window seat to Astafi an retired former soldier who turns out to be a good story teller. When the narrator’s coat is stolen in broad daylight by a stranger, Astafi tells the story of an “honest thief,” Emelian, a man whose only occupation was drinking. Emelian drank because he could not do anything else that was more productive. And so he drank. One day Astafi’s breeches were stolen, but it was not until Emelian was on his death bed that Emelian admitted to having stolen them.

Fifty Great European Short Stories. Ed. Edward and Elizabeth Huberman. New York: Bantam Books. 1971.

"The Sardinian Fox." Grazia Deledda.

Beautiful, but unapproachable Zana alternately leads on and repulses the doctor who can’t help himself from being attracted to her. Always she wants from the doctor a bottle of poison—the ironic poison—because the person who takes it laughs while he dies. She says that she wants the poison for the “fox.” The “Fox” is her lover’s (Jacu’s) wife.

Fifty Great European Short Stories. Ed. Edward and Elizabeth Huberman. New York: Bantam Books. 1971.

"The Death of the Dauphin." Alphonse Daudet.

Review: The little Dauphin is dying. He expects that he will be a Dauphin in the hereafter, living a life of privilege, as on earth. The Chaplain tries to explain that he will not still be a Dauphin in the afterlife. The little Dauphin begins to understand. What good is it to be a Dauphin if you have to die like everyone else? And if you won’t retain your rank in after life? He turns toward the wall and weeps bitterly.

Fifty Great European Short Stories. Ed. Edward and Elizabeth Huberman. New York: Bantam Books. 1971.

"The Substitute." Francois Coppee

Review: Jean Francois takes the blame for a crime he did not commit after a change in his life has made him a respected tradesman. He has done this to save a naïve rustic from his own fate as an habitual criminal prior to his reformation. He willingly substitutes for the real thief because he can survive a life in jail and his young rustic friend would be spared a life of in-jail and out. Jean Francois has saved his young friend from a life like his. Shows how once labeled a criminal in the eyes of the law, one remains a criminal in the eyes of the law, for the rest of one’s life.

Fifty Great European Short Stories. Ed. Edward and Elizabeth Huberman. New York: Bantam Books. 1971.

"A Work of Art." Anton Chekhov.

Review: The gift nobody wants. The original owner of the work of art gives it to a doctor who gives it to a lawyer who gives in to a comedian who sells it to the original owner who takes it to the doctor again as the “mate” for the original gift.

Fifty Great European Short Stories. Ed. Edward and Elizabeth Huberman. New York: Bantam Books. 1971.