Folio Archives 397: Droll Stories by Balzac 1961
TalkFolio Society Devotees
Join LibraryThing to post.
1wcarter
Droll Stories Collected in the Monasteries of Touraine and Given to the Light by Honoré de Balzac. 1961
OED: “Droll” – Curious or unusual in a way that provokes dry amusement.
This is a collection of thirty short stories, arranged into three groups, written by Honoré de Balzac in the first three decades of the nineteenth century. They are witty, amusing, lewd, risqué, and overall anti-clerical as Balzac loved making a joke of the corruption in the Catholic Church, and despite their vows, the lack of chastity and the greed of its monks, nuns and priests.
The stories are easy reading, but the book is not designed to be read from cover to cover. It is best dipped into from time to time to spend ten to twenty minutes reading one of the stories and emerging with a wry smile on your face. It is available very cheaply on the secondary market. You can read the start of a few stories in the pictures below to see if you like their droll style.
The 408 page book is translated by Alec Browne, who wrote a prefatory note, and has 24 two-colour rather droll drawings by Mervyn Peake. The endpapers are brown, and the book is bound in brown canvas blocked with a design in dark brown while the page tops are stained blue. The blue slipcase measures 25.5x16.2cm.
. . . .
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
OED: “Droll” – Curious or unusual in a way that provokes dry amusement.
This is a collection of thirty short stories, arranged into three groups, written by Honoré de Balzac in the first three decades of the nineteenth century. They are witty, amusing, lewd, risqué, and overall anti-clerical as Balzac loved making a joke of the corruption in the Catholic Church, and despite their vows, the lack of chastity and the greed of its monks, nuns and priests.
The stories are easy reading, but the book is not designed to be read from cover to cover. It is best dipped into from time to time to spend ten to twenty minutes reading one of the stories and emerging with a wry smile on your face. It is available very cheaply on the secondary market. You can read the start of a few stories in the pictures below to see if you like their droll style.
The 408 page book is translated by Alec Browne, who wrote a prefatory note, and has 24 two-colour rather droll drawings by Mervyn Peake. The endpapers are brown, and the book is bound in brown canvas blocked with a design in dark brown while the page tops are stained blue. The blue slipcase measures 25.5x16.2cm.
. . . .An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
2David_Mauduit
Thanks for the review!
I'm from that region, I did not know that FS had published such a work. To my shame, I actually never read any Balzac, not sure it aged well.
I'm from that region, I did not know that FS had published such a work. To my shame, I actually never read any Balzac, not sure it aged well.
