Douglas Parmee

Maupassant merges fact and fiction, dream and documentation in this seemingly simple logbook of a sailing cruise along the French Mediterranean coast.

Vallès's book is one of the funniest books in French literature, a triumph of insubordinate comedy over the forces of order and the self-appointed defenders of decency.

Jules Renard's Nature Stories is a deliciously whimsical classic from the era of the great French Postimpressionist painters.