"La Grande Breteche." Balzac.

Review: A jealous husband detects the presence of a man in his wife’s closet, says so, and she denies it. He threatens to open the door of the closet. She says that if he does all will be over between them. He proceeds to have the closet walled up. When she protests, he reminds her that had had sworn on the crucifix that no one was there. As has been true in most of the great French short stories, there is a lengthy preparation before reaching the heart of the story.

Great French Short Stories. Ed. Germaine Brée. New York: Dell Publishing Col, Inc. 1969.

"Dead Man's Combe." Charles Nodier.

Review: A kind of ghost story. The story of a story. A saintly man had come to the Combe to become a hermit. Rumored to be a wealthy man who felt that being a part of the court would keep him from saving his soul. He built up the location, including a monastery and soon had the reputation of being a saint.

But there were evil personages and one night the saint was murdered because of a rumor about the existence of his treasure. In dying the saint had torn a thick tuft of black hair from the murderer’s head.

And now a wealthy personage is listening to the story of how the Combe got its name, with comments from a little man, a red-haired dwarf. The wealthy man became increasingly uncomfortable. No one has ever learned the identity of the saint’s murderer. The wealthy man wants to leave as the story is being told, but is prevented from doing so by the dwarf who holds his arm firmly in his grasp. When he is finally able to leave, his hat blows off in the wind, revealing a bald patch where thick black hair should have been.

The next day, the mangled body of a lifeless man is found. So that is how the place became known as Dead Man’s Combe.

Great French Short Stories. Ed. Germaine Brée. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc. 1969.

"This Is Not a Story." Denis Diderot.

Review: First a tale of faithful man and his faithless lover. Then a tale of a faithless woman and a faithful man. Which is worse at being faithless? Men or women? An argument that will go on and on forever. And what happens when the woman is both faithful and faithless by turns. This is not a story because it is true.

Great French Short Stories. Ed. Germaine Brée. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc. 1969.

"The Princess of Montpensier." Marie Madeleine, Comtesse De La Fayette.

Review: Courtly intrigues in France in the 16^th century. The best summary is in the last paragraph. “She could not resist the sorrow of having lost the esteem of her husband, the heart of her lover, and the most perfect [male] friend one could ever have. She died several days later, in the prime of life, one of the most beautiful princesses in the world. And she doubtless would have been one of the happiest if virtue and prudence had guided all her actions.”

Misunderstandings are at the root of the tragedy in this love triangle. The wife is faithful, but tempted, the suitor is seductive but well-intentioned and his confidents was also the best friend to the wife.

Great French Short Stories. Ed. Germaine Brée. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc. 1969.

"The Chaste Lover." Anonymous.

Review: Middle-aged man has finally decides to marry. But after a time of domesticity, decides to resume his life as a merchant in foreign climes. Recognizing that his wife will have natural desires, he cautions her only to be as chaste as possible while he is gone, but says if she must have a lover it should be only one and a wise one.

He leaves. She is tormented by temptation. She selects a young clerk to be her lover as directed by her husband. What a wonderful idea, says the clerk when invited to be her lover. But there is one problem, he says. He made a promise to our Lord when he feared for his life that he would fast by going without food for for a year without committing a sin. The time for his fast is almost up, but he invites the lady to help him with the fast. He can double the days if she will fast too and she agrees.

Well, she fasts for days, grows weak, loses her desire, and thus, thanks to the wise clerk, remains chaste for her husband.

Great French Short Stories. Ed. Germaine Brée. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc. 1969.

"I.D." Joyce Carol Oates.

“I.D.” Joyce Carol Oates

One-minute review: Seems like a chapter from a novel. Teen-age girl, whose face has been messed up by a fall down the stairs awhile ago, three surgeries to her eye socket ago, has been summoned out of class in high school by two police officers, one a male and another a female.

She is taken to the morgue and asked to “I.D.” a woman’s corpse as her mother. The woman has been beaten to shapelessness. But a coat, and a driver’s license in a torn handbag seem to indicate that they were her mother’s possessions.

In a complete state of denial, she refuses to identify the body as her mother and is returned to school. She rejoins her friends.

That’s it!

Comment: The reader is inside the mind of a troubled teen-ager, troubled by her looks, troubled her parents’ relationships. That’s all I can tell you. It’s a vivid re-creation of her mental state. RayS.

The New Yorker (March 29, 2010), 80-88.

"The Supper at Elsinore." Isak Dinesen.

Review. This story is really an impressionistic look at Denmark. You can feel the cold in you. Three beautiful children, one of whom is a boy, Morton. Because the boy is so beautiful, his sisters cannot get married because they can find no one as handsome he is.

However, on the eve of his marriage, he jilts his bride and lives the life of a pirate. He has many brides. But his sisters will not marry no matter, how many suitors they have. They are fascinated by their brother’s good looks. Finally Morton is hanged as a pirate.

But Morton comes back and they have a “Supper at Elsinore.” They reminisce until the clock strikes 12. That’s all there is. The story is 50 pages long, beautifully written. There is just not much substance to it other than the description of Denmark. Reminds of the poems of Keats.

Famous Ghost Stories. Ed. Bennett Cerf. New York: The Modern Library, Random House, Inc., 1944.

Note: That’s the end of the famous ghost stories.