Paris Metro Tales

by Constantine, Helen

• ISBN13: 9780199579808
• ISBN10: 0199579806
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Following Helen Constantine's highly successful Paris Tales, Paris Metro Tales offers 22 remarkable short stories set throughout Paris--all connected by the underground tunnels of its famed Metro. The journey begins at the Gare du Nord, stops at 20 underground stations along the way, and ends at Lamarck-Caulaincourt, each story corresponding to one of the 20 arrondissements of Paris. Readers are invited to find their way through the underground, changing trains when necessary and imaginatively emerging to read a story it its original setting. The stories range from the 15th-century account of the miraculous Saint Genevieve, patron saint of Paris, through tales by favorite writers such as Zola, Simenon, Balzac, and Maupassant. Though connected by the metro, the subjects of these short stories vary widely: from Martine Delerm's gripping narrative of the last hours of Modigliani's mistress to Gérard de Nerval's rich evocation of the bustling market in Les Halles in the 1850s, Colette's unlikely involvement in a traffic accident near the Opéra, and Boulanger's fine description of a blackly funny experience in Père Lachaise. In addition to writers well known to the English-speaking world, this collection also includes French authors whose work deserves wider attention, including Frédéric Fajardie, Martine Delerm, Marie Desplechin, Paul Fournel, and Claude Dufresne. Each story is illustrated with a black-and-white photograph and the book includes a map and suggested itinerary through the metro system. Perfect for fans of Paris Tales , connoisseurs of French fiction, and all short story enthusiasts, Paris Metro Tales offers rare glimpses of the darker side of the "City of Light."

Author Biography

Helen Constantine has published three volumes of translated stories, Paris Tales, French Tales, and Berlin Tales, and is currently editing a series of City Tales for OUP. She is married to the writer David Constantine and with him edits the international magazine Modern Poetry in Translation.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Gare du Nord, Jacques Reda
Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, Julien Green
Summer Rain, Marie Desplechin
Refined, Daniel Boulanger
A Little Accident, Colette
If it were Sunday, Annie Saumont
Facino Cane, Honore de Balzac
Rue des Larmes, Frederic Fajardie
Story, Paul Fournel
There or Elsewhere, Martine Delerm
Saint Genevieve, Jacques de Voragine
Expomodigliani.com, Martine Delerm
Minuet, Guy de Maupassant
Snow, Emile Zola
La Halle, Gerard de Nerval
Confronting the Present, Andree Chedid
The Cab, Theodore de Banville
The Little Restaurant at Ternes, Georges Simenon
Romance in the Metro, Claude Dufresne
The Neighbour in the Rue de Jarente, Cyrille Fleischman
The Landlady, Guy de Maupassant
La Butte Montmartre, Gerard de Nerval
Notes on the Metro
Notes on the Stories
Notes on the Authors
Selected Further Reading
Publisher's Acknowledgements
Map of metro