Quand le rideau s'est baissé

About this book

"Quand le rideau s'est baissé" by Pierre Mille is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. It playfully recasts history, epic legend, and classical myth with sharp irony, using familiar figures to expose vanity, power, faith, and the accidents behind “great” events. Expect El Cid, Columbus, the Magi, Pygmalion, and Hercules to appear in witty, anachronistic tableaux that question official versions and heroic postures.

The opening of the collection offers a brisk suite of satirical tales: first, a comic aftermath to El Cid in which Chimène’s imperious mother arrives at Bivar, humiliates Rodrigue, then falls for the captive Moor Almanzor; when his ransom fails after his sons are killed, a priestly ruse saves him through marriage to the enamored countess, who cheerfully departs for Africa. Next comes a mock-scholarly “true” history of Columbus that blames the discovery on linguistic misreadings (Ka-tai/Cathay, Coubanakan/Kublai Khan), a crisis of doubt, and a council where a vow of secrecy collapses the moment gold turns up. A darker parable follows: a Magus returning from Bethlehem laments a king’s life under constant threat, spares an assassin but curses him to the same terror until the man begs for death. Then a raconteur rewrites Pygmalion so the living Galatea only ruins the sculptor’s work, and finally Hercules, reduced to Omphale’s servant, tells Daedalus how his famed labors backfired—clearing monsters to unleash worse plagues and earning oracular scorn—before the fragment breaks off. Together these beginnings establish a tone of sly revision and moral inquiry.