Droll Stories — Volume 2

About the book

"Droll Stories — Volume 2" by Honoré de Balzac is a collection of humorous short stories published in 1833. This second group of ten tales continues Balzac's bawdy reimagining of medieval and Renaissance France, written in pastiche archaic French. Inspired by Boccaccio and Rabelais, these ribald stories grow increasingly dark, turning on characters being duped and tormented. Balzac intended them as a celebration of French national character before prudery, though critics found them indecent and scandalous. They remain his most experimental and controversial work.