SOURCE: "Laforgue's Works," in Jules Laforgue, The Athlone Press, 1977, pp. 29-78.

An English-born Canadian educator, critic, and poet, Collie has published several books on Laforgue and produced a 1977 edition of Laforgue's verse collection Les complaintes. He has also published several works on the English novelist George Gissing. In the following excerpt, Collie examines themes, symbols, and tone in Moral Tales.

The exact point at which Laforgue began to write Moralités légendaires is uncertain. In all likelihood it was during the winter of 1885-6, for in June 1886 he told [his friend, the editor Gustave] Kahn he had enough to make a volume and listed the stories by name: 'Salomé'; "Hamlet ou les suites de la piété filiale'; 'Le Miracle des Roses'; 'Incomprise'; 'L'Amour de la Symétrie'; 'Persée et Andromède, ou le plus heureux des trois'; 'Corinne au Cap Misère'; 'Malborough s'en...