Used book – Contes de la bécasse, Guy de Maupassant

Every autumn, an old hunter treated his friends to woodcock. The heads of these delicious birds were given to a single guest chosen by lot. And this guest, to compensate the others, had to tell a story. The sixteen short stories in this collection are almost all set in Normandy, where Maupassant spent a happy youth. His peasant hunters, his aristocrats, his chair-mender, his fishermen are captured live in their daily lives. The madness of the woman who lost her entire family, the sordid avarice of the little dog's mistress, the sad old age of the minuet dancers, the revenge of the wronged wife, Maupassant sees everything in the most poignant details. The famous author of Bel Ami gives us his best tales in this collection.

Foreword by Jacques Chessex Comments and notes by Louis Forestiers.