Spanning four hundred years, from the sixteenth century to the 'golden age' of the fin de siècle, this anthology encompasses the French short story's most famous practitioners, as well as many writers translated for the first time. It ranges from the affairs of Madame de Lafayette to the polemical realism of Victor Hugo, the supernatural mystery of Guy de Maupassant to the dark sensuality of Rachilde. Here are decadent tales, 'bloody tales' and fairy tales, detective stories and war stories, witty 'three-line novellas', works about families and lovers, country and city, wealthy and poor, all part of a rich, vital and endlessly varied literary tradition.