Short Fiction

Short Fiction brings Gustave Flaubert’s approach to fiction, shorts into clear focus first published in 1838-77. Its central concerns include human motives, relationships, conflict, and the consequences of choice, approached through the possibilities of fiction, shorts. This English edition is presented in a translation by M. Walter Dunne, bringing the work’s original voice into a different linguistic setting. The reading experience is shaped by a character-centered narrative style that rewards attention to voice, structure, and perspective. At roughly 38,281 words with a fairly easy reading profile, it offers a reading commitment that is easy to judge before beginning while still leaving room for close attention. Readers still return to it because of its capacity to make unfamiliar lives and difficult choices emotionally legible. Readers drawn to fiction, shorts and human motives will find a work that combines a distinct period voice with questions that remain recognizable today. Short Fiction therefore works both as an encounter with Gustave Flaubert’s individual voice and as an example of the wider literary tradition surrounding fiction, shorts.