La Belle Nivernaise and other tales by Alphonse Daudet (1929)

This group of tales form 'Volume VII' in a one-volume edition - I've never seen the individual volumes published separately. La Belle Nivernaise is the most considerable piece, in terms of impact. This story of a young waif taken up by a poor bargeman and his wife who live on the canals between Paris and the country, whose business is mainly timber, is highly sentimental. But it has the saving graces of warmth and genuineness of detail and the contrast of the tough life depicted to help it hit a higher mark. Victor, the waif, is able to be viewed by the reader with a full swathe of pathos which doesn't overly undermine his dignity. The Third Low Mass is a moral story in three chapters detailing the obsessed attentiveness of a hedonist priest to the Christmas Feast which will follow his masses. He skips bits and hurries the congregation in a mad hungry rush for the groaning tables. And of course dies in the night of his overindulgence! A Violet! is a little jeu d'esprit which speaks of an uptight administrator dreading the making of a dull speech. While journeying to the meeting, he spies a cool-looking wood, stops his carriage, and wanders up there in a glum state. A while later, his lackeys come searching for him, and to their horror find him lying face down scribbling verses, released from his prison of duty. The Two Inns is a gothic melancholic number, where a walker comes to a small village with two hotels facing each other at the end of the only street. One is full of life, bursting with noise and voices; the other is tumbledown, forlorn and silent. He decides to try the latter, and hears from the withdrawn landlady the story of her husband's perfidy; he is having an affair with the landlady opposite and has left his wife in penury and despair. The Elixir is another religious tale, this time a satiric one, where an unconventional monk saves his monastery from financial ruin by inventing a splendid health-giving herbal elixir, which also has intoxicating properties. His success in business is matched by his indulgence in the product. After some soul-searching, his fellow monks decide to grant him special licence via indulgences so that he can keep on making it and enjoying himself, rather than lose him for drunkenness and lose his profits! Finally, The Camargue is a poetic travelogue which investigates this very special region. It is imbued with waterlogged, marshy, reedy, mosquitoey tones and delicate imagery of special times of day when extraordinary beauty and peace reign. A lively group of tales.