Reprint with revision. Originally published: New York : Bantam Books, 1960. (A Bantam dual-language book ; s1993).

Micromégas = Micromegas / Voltaire -- La messe de l'athée = The atheist's mass / Honoré de Balzac -- La légende de Saint Julien l'hospitalier = The legend of St. Julian the hospitaler / Gustave Flaubert -- Le spleen de Paris (trois poèmes en prose) : Le vieux saltimbanque, Le joujou du pauvre, La corde = Spleen of Paris (three poems in prose) : The old clown, The poor boy's toy, The rope / Charles Baudelaire -- Menuet = Minuet / Guy de Maupassant -- Mort de Judas = Death of Judas / Paul Claudel -- Le retour de l'enfant prodigue = The return of the prodigal son / André Gide -- Grand-Lebrun = Grand-Lebrun / François Mauriac -- Le passe-muraille = The passer-through-walls / Marcel Aymé -- L'hôte = The guest / Albert Camus.

Ten short stories by Voltaire, Balzac, Gide, Camus and others in the original French and a new English translation.