''Les Soirées de Médan'' ("Evenings at Médan") is a collection of six
short stories by six different writers associated with
Naturalism, first published in 1880.
Britannica.com
/ref> All the stories concern the Franco-Prussian War. The contents of the book are as follows:
*''L'Attaque du moulin'' ("The Attack on the Mill") by Émile Zola
*''Boule de Suif
Boule may refer to:
;Ball games
* Boules, a collective term for games involving players throwing balls at a smaller target ball
** Pétanque, a common variety originating in France and sometimes loosely called "boules" in English
** Boule Lyonnais ...
'' ("Ball of Tallow") by Guy de Maupassant
*''Sac au dos'' ("Backpack") by Joris-Karl Huysmans
*''La Saignée'' ("Bloodshed") by Henri Céard
*''L'Affaire du Grand 7'' ("The Affair of the Great 7") by Léon Hennique
Léon Hennique (4 November 1850 – 25 December 1935) was a French naturalistic novelist and playwright.
Life
Léon Hennique was born in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, the son of the naval infantry officer Agathon Hennique. He studied painting, but ...
*''Après la bataille'' ("After the Battle") by Paul Alexis
The collection took its title from Zola's house at Médan, near Paris, where writers would meet for literary dinners. The authors were often referred to collectively as the "Médan group". The aim of the collection was to promote the ideals of Naturalism, by treating the events of the Franco-Prussian War in a realistic and often unheroic way, in contrast to officially approved patriotic views of the war.
By far the most famous story in the collection is ''Boule de Suif
Boule may refer to:
;Ball games
* Boules, a collective term for games involving players throwing balls at a smaller target ball
** Pétanque, a common variety originating in France and sometimes loosely called "boules" in English
** Boule Lyonnais ...
'', which immediately launched the career of the young Guy de Maupassant.
Zola's story became the basis for an opera of the same name by Alfred Bruneau
Louis Charles Bonaventure Alfred Bruneau (3 March 1857 – 15 June 1934) was a French composer who played a key role in the introduction of realism in French opera.
Life
Born in Paris, Bruneau studied the cello as a youth at the Paris Conservator ...
.
References
External links
*
1880 anthologies
French anthologies
Fiction anthologies
Franco-Prussian War fiction
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