A LIST OF REPRESENTATIVE TALES AND SHORT STORIES XII 1840 TO 1850: Pierre Grassou, Honoré de Balzac (1840). Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, Edgar A. Poe (1840). The Masque of the Red Death, Edgar A. Poe (1842). A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (1843). The Gold-Bug, Edgar A. Poe (1843). The Birthmark, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1843). Trésor des Fèves et Fleur des Pois, Charles Nodier (1844). Carmen, Prosper Mérimée (1845). The Purloined Letter, Edgar A. Poe (1845). The Chimes, Charles Dickens (1845). Nouvelles, Théophile Gautier (1845). The Cricket on the Hearth, Charles Dickens (1845). L'Abbé Aubain, Prosper Mérimée (1846). The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar A. Poe (1846). La Mare au Diable, George Sand (1846). Mosses from an Old Manse, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1846). Phil Fogarty, W. M. Thackeray (1847). Le Roi Candaule, Théophile Gautier (1847). Mrs. Perkins's Ball, W. M. Thackeray (1847). Gamle Hans Grenader, Jörgen Moe (before 1853). LA GRANDE BRETÈCHE LA GRANDE BRETÈCHE, by Honoré de Balzac (17991850), was first published in the second edition of his Scenes of Private Life, a subdivision of that portion of The Human Comedy called Studies of Manners, in 1832, under the title, The Council. Under that heading was also grouped The Message. Later, La Grande Bretèche appeared with the subtitle, Conclusion of Another Study of Woman. In the Edition Définitive of Balzac's works La Grande Bretèche was merged in Another Study of Woman, and its distinctive title disappeared altogether. Among the best of Balzac's Short Stories may be mentioned: Adieu (1830), A Passion in the Desert (1830), An Episode Under the Terror (1830), The Unknown Masterpiece (1831), The Conscript (1831), La Grande Bretèche (1832), A Seashore Drama (1835), The Succuba (Contes Drôlatiques: 1832-1833-1837). It may be noted that, though Balzac is primarily a great French novelist, the best of his Short Stories are of the very first rank; unfortunately for them, they have been unduly overshadowed by his longer works of fiction. No other French writer, unless it be Mérimée or Maupassant, has written so many Short Stories of a high degree of excellence. La Grande Bretèche is one of the best-known of Balzac's short pieces of fiction, and deservedly so; it takes rank among his half-dozen best of all. Contrary to a practice in which he was too prone to indulge, he is here not long in "getting under way," as George Saintsbury has remarked, and he does not waste a single stroke in drawing the dramatic close. Indeed, the piece is so 66 |