There is such a wealth of French literature that it rapidly became obvious that I didn’t know where to start. Which author was most representative of the genre and culture and then which novel best represented that author. However, having read Anna of the Five Towns by Bennett I came across Eugenie Grandet, very similar in that the miser in both tales shapes the events that happen. I also looked in depth at Pere Goriot by the same author. I did not confine my studies solely to Balzac. I also considered Zola and Flaubert and had already read some of Guy de Maupassant and of course I had read for enjoyment Jules Verne and some Victor Hugo and then a simple fact conveyed itself to me - if one went through the alphabet and tried to find a quality French author beginning with that letter you could do so and probably find several for many of the letters. Established students of this field (lucky people) will no doubt laugh reading this.

However, I am only at the beginning of my study. It is a daunting task - if I were to read nothing else but Balzac for the rest of my career I would not reach the end of the canon. I shall limit my ambition therefore and say that Assembled Stories will occasionally produce an acknowledged masterpiece of French Literature from the 19th century. It will be my pleasure to read them.