Wikipedia page about this book: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contes_cruels

Release date is 2020-08-07

Les Demoiselles De Bienfilatre -- Véra -- Vox Populi -- Deux augures -- L'affichage céleste -- Antonie -- La machine a gloire -- Duke of Portland -- Virginie et Paul -- Le convive des dernières fêtes -- A s'y méprendre -- Impatience de la foule -- Le secret de l'ancienne musique -- Sentimentalisme -- Le plus beau diner du monde -- Le désir d'être un homme -- Fleurs de ténèbres -- L'appareil pour l'analyse chimique du dernier soupir -- Les brigands -- La reine Ysabeau -- Sombre récit, conteur plus sombre -- L'intersigne -- L'inconnue -- Maryelle -- Le traitement du docteur Tristan -- Conte d'amour -- Souvenirs occultes -- L'Annonciateur (Épilogue).

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"Contes cruels" by comte de Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam is a collection of 28 short stories published in 1883. These tales satirize the bourgeois materialism and narrow-mindedness of the era, contrasting superficial characters with spiritual idealists. Villiers employs dark irony and sometimes fantastic elements to critique his contemporaries' greed, foolishness, and obsessive rationalism. The stories share a common thread of cruelty, revealing human flaws without pretense while maintaining a tragic poetry that reflects the author's aristocratic idealism and devotion to beauty. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Original publication data not identified