Paul Smethers, a former high school English teacher, is an Associate with the Adult Services Team at Main.
His special interests are poetry, ghost stories, and the French Bourbon dynasty.
James Joyce was an Irish novelist, short story writer, poet, teacher, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century.
In our last episode, a group of wartime travelers attempts to escape the Prussian-occupied city of Rouen. They includea prostitute named Boule de Suif and are being held hostage at an inn by a Prussian officer who refuses to let them leave the town of Totes, where they are marooned after a snowstorm.
“Boule de Suif,” translated variously as "Dumpling," "Butterball," "Ball of Fat," "Tallow Ball," or "Ball of Lard," is a famous short story by the late 19th-century French writer Guy de Maupassant, first published in 1880.