Paris Street Tales is the third volume of a trilogy of translated
stories set in Paris. The previous two editions are Paris Tales, in
which each story is associated with one of the twenty arrondissements,
and Paris Metro Tales, in which the twenty-two stories are related to
a trip around the Paris Metro. This new volume contains seventeen
newly-translated stories related to particular streets in Paris and one
newly-written tale of the city.
The stories range from the nineteenth century to the present day and
include tales by well-known writers such as Colette, Maupassant, Didier
Daeninckx, and Simenon, and less familiar names such as Francis Carco,
Aurelie Filipetti, and Arnaud Baignot. They present a vivid picture of
Paris streets in a variety of literary styles and tones. Simenon's
Maigret is called upon to solve a mystery on the Boulevard Beaumarchais;
a flaneur learns some French history through second-hand objects
retrieved from the Seine; a nineteenth-century affair in the Rue de
Miromesnil goes badly wrong; a body is discovered on the steps of the
smallest street in Paris. Through these stories we see how the city has
changed over the last two centuries and what has survived. All of the
tales in the book are translated apart from the last, a new story by
David Constantine, based on the last days of the poet Gerard de
Nerval.
