A Romantic Storybook

Overview:

• Title: A Romantic Storybook
• Author: Morris Bishop
• Year: 1971
• ISBN-10: 0801406587
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Price: $7.50
• Pages: xiv+309
• Binding: Hardcover
• Type: Anthology
• Title Reference: Morella
• Notes:
  • Price on front flap; also "£3.60 net in U.K. only."
  • Published simultaneously in the U.S. and U.K. by Cornell University Press.
  • "Selected and edited by Morris Bishop".
  • Only the speculative content is indexed here.
  • The non-speculative stories in this volume are as follows:
    • 1 • The Adventure of a Desperate Man • Abbé Prévost [Translation by Morris Bishop of "Aventure d'un désespéré," published in Contes, aventures et faits singuliers (Duchesne, 1764); it had previously appeared in Prévost's journal Pour et Contre, exact date unknown, probably 1733.] A man is pulled from the river and explains why he was in the water: he raised a girl as his ward intending to marry her, but on finding that she had run off with a lover of her own choice, he attempted to throw her into the river; she resisted too strongly, and on the approach of rescuers, he jumped in.
    • 15 • The Shepherdess of the Alps • Jean-François Marmontel [An uncredited translation from Marmontel's Moral Tales (1810); the original, "La bergère des Alpes," was published in the Mercure in October 1759.] The Marquis and Marchioness of Fonrose encounter on their travels a beautiful shepherdess who seems to harbor some secret sorrow; they tell their son about her, and he is interested and returns to the mountains, disguised as a shepherd. He falls in love with her, and after many sentimental confessions, they marry.
    • 78 • The Strange Story of a Young Englishman • Johann Peter Hebel [Translation by Morris Bishop of "Merkwürdige Schicksale eines jungen Engländers," originally published in the almanac Der Rheinländische Hausfreund in 1808.] How a traveler came to be accused of the murder of the guard of his stagecoach, and the remarkable events that followed his arrest.
    • 83 • An Unexpected Reunion • Johann Peter Hebel [Translation by Morris Bishop of "Unverhofftes Wiedersehen," originally published in the almanac Der Rheinländische Hausfreund in 1811.] A miner is killed underground a week before his wedding. His fiancée sees him one more time when his perfectly-preserved corpse is found fifty years later.
    • 86 • Monsieur Charles • Johann Peter Hebel [Translation by Morris Bishop of "Herr Charles," originally published in the almanac Rheinblüten in 1818.] A Polish man from Vilna arrives in Paris and comes to the door of a man named Charles, explaining that he was entrusted with four young French children orphaned in Napoleon's Russian campaign, and knows nothing except that their last name is Charles. He has not located the right man... or has he?
    • 188 • El Verdugo • Honoré de Balzac [Translation by Ellen Marriage from The Works of Balzac (1901); the original, "El Verdugo," was first published in La Mode, 30 January 1830.] A violent incident of Napoleon's campaign in Spain.
    • 263 • The Malacca Cane • Alfred de Vigny [Translation by Morris Bishop of "La vie et la mort du capitaine Renaud ou la Canne de Jonc," first published in Vigny's Servitude et grandeur militaire (1835).] Reminiscences of an old soldier, and his death.