­L’histoire de France vue par le petit bout de la lorgnette dans quelques nouvelles ­d’Erckmann-Chatrian

Erckmann-Chatrian wrote novellas based on the history of France. If history is an essential novelistic element, the presence of the past in the short narratives surpasses a simply referential function. Erckmann-Chatrian used the short form to evoke the inglorious and little-known facts of official history. The novella is the ideal refuge for authentic details and the minor history of history.