The Colonel's Ideas

Colone Laporte has an opinion about everything. Colonel Laporte is also right about everything. Or so he thinks.


During a conversation with a friend, he is preaching his opinion about French people. He claims that they are famous for their attitudes towards members of the opposite sex. His friend disagrees. Frustrated and attempting to get his point across, he begins to tell the story of an encounter he had during the Franco-Prussian War. Only as his story continues does it become clear just how shocking this encounter was.



This fast-paced tale is unmissable for fans of Ambrose Bierce.







Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was one of the finest practitioners of the French short story. He was considered a master of both style and dramatic narrative. A representative of the Naturalist school, he wrote 300 short stories during his career - alongside a number of novels, travel books, and a volume of verse. The most notable of his work is considered to be his first short story - ‘Boule de Suif’. His volumes of short stories were heavily influential, with one of them acting as inspiration for John Ford’s ‘Stagecoach’.