Mademoiselle Fifi

"Something that he was going to say was cut short in his throat, and he sat there with his mouth half open and a terrible look in his eyes."

A group of vulgar and disrespectful Prussian soldiers have seized a beautiful manor in Normandy, passing endless days with drinking, womanizing and vandalising. The worst of the soldiers is a man who goes by the name ''Mademoiselle Fifi" and he thinks he can get away with just about anything. But when he tries to have his way with a Jewish sex worker named Rachel, he has another thing coming.

In 'Mademoiselle Fifi', the little guy – or girl – wins, which makes for a satisfying reading experience. The short story was adapted to screen in 1944 by Robert Wise, who would later go on to direct the Oscar winning movies 'West Side Story' (1961) and 'The Sound of Music' (1965).

Guy de Maupassant (1850 – 1893) was a French author and one of the fathers of the modern short story. His mother, Laure Le Poittevin, was an extremely well-read woman and introduced him to literature at a young age. Maupassant wrote six novels and over 300 short stories, the first and most famous being 'Boule de Suif' (1880).