Tri pripovijetke: Župnik od Toursa / Slavni Gaudissart / Tajna kneginje Cadignan

Published by Matica Hrvatska from 1946, in an excellent translation from French by Rudolf Maixner, the collection Three Short Stories represents a great cross-section of the immense creative potential of Honoré de Balzac and his monumental Human Comedy.

The first short story, The Vicar of Tours, is a masterful psychological portrait and a miniature of petty-bourgeois mischief, in which the modest and good-natured abbot Birotteau falls victim to the insidious intrigues of the ambitious abbot Troubert for possession of the rectory apartment. Through this story, Balzac dissects the anxious atmosphere of the provincial circle and the mechanisms of the social struggle for power.

The second story, Slavni Gaudissart, is a satirical comedy of confusion and a sharp critique of the capitalist spirit of the time. It follows a nude traveling salesman, a master of persuasion and empty rhetoric, who has a hilarious meltdown in the provinces as he tries to sell bankruptcy insurance to those who outsmart him on his own turf.

The third story, The Secret of the Princesse Cadignan, is a sophisticated fashionable drama in which the famous and notorious seductress, the Princesse de Cadignan, uses her superb art of lying and acting to win the heart of a celebrated writer. Through subtle dialogues, Balzac exposes the hypocrisy of Parisian high society.

Together, these three stories illustrate the broad thematic range of Pišu's genius – from satire and humor to deep psychological analysis of character.