("Mademoiselle Fifi and other stories")

[fiefoe]

From the introduction:
    "He helped rescue the English poet Swinburne, who had got into difficulties while swimming. For his trouble, Maupassant was twice invited to lunch, and observed for himself a collection of engravings and gruesome objects - including a withered hand, supposedly of an executed murderer - which Swinburne, an admirer of the Marquis de Sade, had assembled. (... the hand, which he later acquired and used as a paperweight) "

I don't really see the 'comic invention' in "The Little Keg". "The Tribulations of Walter Schnaffs" and "The Business of Latin" are among the more upbeat pieces.

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