Paris Street Tales

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.

Helen Constantine taught languages in schools until 2000, when she became a full-time translator. She has published three volumes of translated stories, Paris Tales, Paris Metro Tales, and French Tales. She is general editor of the City Tales series for OUP. Her translations include Mademoiselle deMaupin by Theophile Gautier and Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos for Penguin, The Wild Ass’s Skin by Balzac, The Conquest of Plassans by Zola, and Flaubert’s A Sentimental Education for OUP.