Showing results for "Bread" in Classics

“A Piece of Bread” is written by the famous French poet and author François Coppee. The story tells how the mind of a wealthy duke has changed after meeting a poor soldier coming from a different part of the country. The story is thought to be influenced by the FrenchPrussian War in 1887. Coppee writes about the war and how it changes people with an impressive literary style.

Zona Gale was born on 26th August 1874, in Portage, Wisconsin. Her first novel ‘Romance Island’ was published in 1906 and she also began the popular ‘Friendship Village’ series of stories. In 1920 came ‘Miss Lulu Bett’, which depicts life in the Midwest. Adapted into a play it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. It was a stellar achievement.

When little Hans dies of the croup, his mother uses all her scant wealth to ensure him a proper burial. She spins the thread for his shroud and has a beautiful little coffin made. But while she is out, the rats gnaw at little Hans's leather slippers and the dead child has nothing for his feet. Hans' mother makes him a pair of shoes from her last loaf of bread. But after the child is buried, the ghostly child reappears night after night weeping. The bread shoes are preventing him from entering heaven. But the local priest comes up with a plan.

This story, also translated as "The Imp and the Bread", concerns a peasant whose piece of bread was stolen by a little demon who hoped it would make the peasant curse. The opposite happened. The devil was displeased, and the imp set out on a successful three-year plan to make the peasant sin.