The Marvelous Palace And Other Stories (French: 'Histoires Perfides') is a collection of short stories by French author Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1976 and in English in 1977. The English language edition is translated by Margaret Giovanelli. The collection contains six stories, all thematically related, and presented in the voice of a centenarian story-teller from the Orient.
The collection includes an introduction, in which the narrator introduces the storyteller, who is generally referred to as "Old Man." After the introduction, each of the six short stories is narrated by the Old Man:
- The Royal Pardon
- The Marvelous Palace
- The Laws
- The Limits of Endurance
- Compassion Service
- The Angelic Monsieur Edyh
The stories are all recountings of tales from the Old Man's distant past as a minister of "the Religion of Doubt" in the far off Kingdom of Shandong. Each story presents a brief moral dilemma, usually with a surprise ending.
Famous quotes containing the words marvelous, palace and/or stories:
“Too marvelous for words.”
—Johnny Mercer (1909–1976)
“It ain’t home t’ ye, though it be the palace of a king,
Until somehow yer soul is sort o’ wrapped round everything.”
—Edgar Albert Guest (1881–1959)
“Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.”
—Eudora Welty (b. 1909)