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The Great Modern French Stories; A Chronological Anthology
The Great Modern French Stories A Chronological Anthology Author:S. S. Van Dine General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1917 Original Publisher: Boni and Liveright Subjects: French fiction English fiction Fiction / Anthologies Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Literary Criticism / European / French Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustra... more »tions and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CROISILLES (Croisilles) By ALFRED DE MUSSET AT the beginning of the reign of Louis XV., a young man named Croisilles, son of a goldsmith, was returning from Paris to Havre, his native town. He had been intrusted by his father with the transaction of some business, and his trip to the great city having turned out satisfactorily, the joy of bringing good news caused him to walk the sixty leagues more gaily and briskly than his wont; for, though he had a rather large sum of money in his pocket he travelled on foot for pleasure. He was a good-tempered fellow, and not without wit, but so very thoughtless and flighty that people looked upon him as being rather weak-minded. His doublet buttoned awry, his periwig flying to the wind, his hat under his arm, he followed the banks of the Seine, at times finding enjoyment in his own thoughts and again indulging in snatches of song; up at daybreak, supping at wayside inns, and always charmed with this stroll of his through one of the most beautiful regions of France. Plundering the apple-trees of Normandy on his way, he puzzled his brain to find rhymes (for all these rattle-pates are more or less poets), and tried hard to turn out a madrigal for a certain fair damsel of his native place. She was no less than a daughter of a ]ernuer-g6n6ral, Mademoiselle Godeau, the pearl of Havre, a rich heiress, and much courted. Croisilles was not received at M. Godeau's otherwise than in a casu...« less