Historiettes, Contes et Fabliaux (English: Stories, Tales and Fables) are a set of short tales written by the Marquis de Sade

Marquis de Sade

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...

 while imprisoned in the Bastille

Bastille

The Bastille was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. The Bastille was built in response to the English threat to the city of...

. The dates of the tales range from 1787 to 1788. They were published in a colllected edition for the first time in 1926 together with Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man

Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man

Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man is a dialogue written by the Marquis de Sade while incarcerated at Château de Vincennes in 1782, expressing his atheism by having a dying man convince a priest of the mistakes of a pious life...

(written in 1782).

History

Despite it having been written after de Sade's Les 120 journées de Sodome ou l'école du libertinage and Justine, the collection features little of the graphic display, elaborate torture and overall sadism that typically characterize de Sade's writing. The stories range from simple anecdotical tales with plot twists

Plot twist

A plot twist is a change in the expected direction or outcome of the plot of a film, television series, video game, novel, comic or other fictional work. It is a common practice in narration used to keep the interest of an audience, usually surprising them with a revelation...

 to clever softcore comedy and even some fantastic

Fantastic

The Fantastic is a literary term that describes a quality of other literary genres, and, in some cases, is used as a genre in and of itself, although in this case it is often conflated with the Supernatural. The term was originated in the structuralist theory of critic Tzvetan Todorov in his work...

 literature. Nevertheless, de Sade's trademark disdain for religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

, morality

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

 and the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 government remains, as does his sexually-themed narrative and devotion to nature

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

 as an excuse for the ways of the libertine

Libertine

A libertine is one devoid of most moral restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behavior sanctified by the larger society. Libertines, also known as rakes, placed value on physical pleasures, meaning those...

.

Synopsis

The anthology is divided in two parts - Historiettes (consisting of 11 short stories) and Contes et Fabliaux (consisting of 14 short stories), as well as an appendice.

Historiettes features all stories dealing with the fantastic (La serpent, Le revenant and Aventure incompréhensible) as well as the shorter, anecdotical-like ones (Attrapez-moi toujours de même, La Fleur de châtaignier).

Contes et Fabliaux features the more sadistic stories in the vein of de Sade's better known works. One in particular, Le Président mystifié ("The Mystified Magistrate"), is the longest of the collection and due to its length and structure is sometimes considered a nouvelle of its own. The tale revolves around the title [gullible] magistrate, his upcoming marriage to a woman who (unbeknownst to him) does not desire him, and the series of practical jokes, hoaxes and elaborate schemes that the woman's brother-in-law (the marquis d'Olincourt) perpetrates against the magistrate in order to stop the wedding.

Contents

Historiettes

• Le Serpent
• La Saillie Gasconne
• L’Heureuse Feinte
• Le M… puni
• L'Évêque embourbé
• Le Revenant
• Les Harangueurs Provençaux
• Attrapez-moi toujours de même
• L'Époux complaisant
• Aventure incompréhensible
• La Fleur de châtaignier

Contes et Fabliaux

• L’Instituteur philosophe
• La Prude, ou la Rencontre imprévue
• Émilie de Tourville, ou la Cruauté fraternelle
• Augustine de Villeblanche, ou le Stratagème de l’amour
• Soit fait ainsi qu’il est requis
• Le Président mystifié
• La Marquise de Thélème, ou les Effets du libertinage
• Le Talion
• Le Cocu de lui-même, ou le Raccommodement imprévu
• Il y a place pour deux
• L'Époux corrigé
• Le Mari prêtre
• La Châtelaine de Longeville, ou la Femme vengée
• Les Filous

Appendice

• Les Dangers de la bienfaisance