A collection of Maupassant's short fiction in English, gathering some of his best-known tales. They are set in Normandy villages, Paris streets, battlefields and country inns, and they deal with greed, vanity, love, deceit and the quirks of fate. Many end with a sudden irony or a quiet moment of pity. Brief, clear and carefully made, the stories show why Maupassant is regarded as one of the masters of the form and why they still read freshly today.