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The French word conte is tricksy, even contradictory, but what I had always been taught is that contes are more anecdotal than conventional short stories, coming out of the tradition of oral tales and often devoted to a single theme.—Lauren Groff, The New York Review of Books, 23 Apr. 2020 Today, though, her powerful fiction is too little read, apart from a handful of eerie tales and contes cruels.—Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 5 June 2019
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