Customer Reviews

For a Night of Love (Hesperus Classics)

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Emile Zola is primarily known for his novels. Only one English language collection of Zola's short stories has been available prior to the publication of FOR A NIGHT OF LOVE. Ths is a set of 16 stories published by Oxford University Press under the title The Attack On The Mill And Other Stories.

This current collection brings together three stories that the editors claim have never before been published in English. All three have a romantic theme.

The first, For A Night Of Love, tells the story of a shy young postal worker who falls in love with his beautiful, rich, and haughty neighbor. She ignores him until one night when she needs his help. The story tells how far he will go for a night of love.

The second tale is of a young man, Nantas, who comes to Paris to make his fortune and falls in love with his landlord's daughter. She needs a favor from him, but disdains his love. He goes to extraordinary lengths to win her love, but will he succeed?

These two stories of male desire are followed by Fasting, a story in which Zola takes one of his pokes at the Catholic clergy. It portrays a rich woman's sexual daydreams as she sits in church listening to a sermon on fasting given by a gourmet priest .

All three stories are excellent at portraying 19th Century France and the people of this time. It is our good fortune that these three are now available in the English language. The Foreward gives some insight into Zola's writings and the Introduction some background on the stories. A good collection of stories from one of France's greatest writiers.

This translation is not new; it's a copy of an early 20th century translation that is archaic and not a translation at all so much as a transliteration. Just "Look Inside" at the first page of text: the awkward syntax and poor grammar that only a crude translation could render. Zola was the ultimate stylist and if you think this poor version is what he intended, you don't know French lit very well. This publisher is not what it purports to be.