A Very French Christmas: The Greatest French Holiday Stories of All Time

by New Vessel Press (Editor), Guy de Maupassant, Alphonse Daudet, Anatole France, Irène Némirovsky

Overview

Joyeux Noël: “[An]endearing collection of Christmas stories from ten of France’s most esteemed writers―past and present―skillfully translated.” ―Foreword Reviews
 
This collection brings together the best French Christmas stories of all time, featuring classics by Guy de Maupassant and Alphonse Daudet, plus stories by the esteemed twentieth century authors Irène Némirovsky and Nobel Prize winner Anatole France and contemporary writers Dominique Fabre and Jean-Philippe Blondel. With a holiday spirit conveyed through sparkling Paris streets, opulent feasts, wandering orphans, kindly monks, homesick soldiers, oysters, crayfish, ham, bonbons, flickering desire, and more than a little wine, this collection encapsulates Christmas à la française—delicious, intense and unexpected.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939931559
Publisher:	New Vessel Press
Publication date:	08/19/2021
Series:	Very Christmas Series , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	142
Sales rank:	501,949
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was a popular nineteenth-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story, who also wrote novels, travel books, and verse. Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) was a French novelist and the father of writers Leon Daudet and Lucien Daudet. He is regarded as one of the most iconic names in French literature.
Guy de Maupassant was a nineteenth-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, who depicted human lives, destinies, and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms. He was a protégé of Gustave Flaubert, and his stories are characterized by economy of style and efficient, seemingly effortless dénouements. Born in 1850 at the late–sixteenth century Château de Miromesnil, de Maupassant was the first son of Laure Le Poittevin and Gustave de Maupassant, who both came from prosperous bourgeois families. Until the age of thirteen, de Maupassant lived with his mother at Étretat in Normandy. The Franco-Prussian War broke out soon after his graduation from college in 1870, and he enlisted as a volunteer. In his later years he developed a constant desire for solitude, an obsession for self-preservation, and a fear of death and paranoia of persecution. In 1892, de Maupassant attempted suicide. He was committed to the private asylum of Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris, where he died in 1893.
Anatole France (1844–1924) was one of the true greats of French letters and the winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature. The son of a bookseller, France was first published in 1869 and became famous with The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard. Elected as a member of the French Academy in 1896, France proved to be an ideal literary representative of his homeland until his death.

Table of Contents

Featuring stories by Alphonse Daudet, Guy de Montpassant, Anatole France, Irène Némirovsky, Jean-Philippe Blondel, Dominique Fabre, Paul Arène, François Coppée, Antoine Gustave Droz and Anatole Le Braz, this collection will warm the cockles of your heart and burn the bottom of your feet with succulent feasts, yuletide tragedy and Parisian cheer, and more than a few glasses of red wine.

Editorial Reviews

The English-speaking Francophiles and travelers among us who like nothing more than to suss out the soul of a foreign place can rejoice in this endearing collection of Christmas stories from ten of France’s most esteemed writers—past and present—skillfully translated.”
—Foreword Reviews

"A joy to hold and page through, as it is beautifully produced ... The Christmas themes are treated with a refreshing originality and variety, and I can imagine returning to reread this collection for many Christmases to come."
—The Fictional 100

"Wonderful anthology ... It's funky, it's wild, it's French."
—The Drunken Odyssey

From the Publisher

10/15/2017
After last year's A Very Russian Christmas, New Vessel presents a new holiday compilation featuring 14 French stories from both classic and contemporary authors. Several selections date from the 19th century, including stories by François Coppée and Maupassant, interspersed with more modern tales from Jean-Philippe Blondel, Dominique Fabre, and Irène Némirovsky. The book starts off with Blondel's slyly humorous story, "The Gift," about an elderly man who has to put up with his family at Christmas but manages to sneak off with an old flame he spies across the restaurant. However, the remaining pieces don't live up to the promise of the first. VERDICT Recommend this title only for the most die-hard Francophiles.

Library Journal