{"product_id":"9780199217489","title":"French Tales","description":"\u003cp\u003eFiction is much more enlightening about a country and its people than are statistics, and if we want to find out and understand what a nation is really like, we must read its literature. In French Tales, Helen Constantine offers a panoramic view of French society and culture as seen through its short fiction, ranging through all twenty-two regions of France and featuring the work of an engaging collection of writers. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHere are stories as varied as the regions of France themselves—dramatic, tragic, comic, poetic, ghostly, satirical. Readers will find both famous and little-known writers—among them Guy de Maupassant, Emile Zola, Daniel Boulanger, Didier Daeninckx, and Colette—and will wander the country from Provence and Alsace to Ile-de-France and Normandy. The themes are timeless—marriage and the dealings between the sexes; the nature of friendship; the misery and the memory of war—and the stories themselves reflect the rich ethnic diversity of France. Thus, Christian Garcin's story set in Lille has Flemish associations; Prosper Mérimée's Mateo Falcone, about an honor killing in Corsica, is in many respects more Italian than French; and Marcel Aymé's story about Arbi, an Arab in Paris living at the bottom of a cul-de-sac, illustrates only too well the plight of many North Africans who settled in the larger cities—Paris and Marseille especially.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFollowing the model of the highly successful Paris Tales, also translated by Helen Constantine, each story is illustrated with a striking photograph and there is a map indicating the position of the French regions. There is an introduction and notes to accompany the stories and a selection of further readings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47009070809328,"sku":"9780199217489","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780199217489_p0.jpg?v=1763668652","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780199217489","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}