About the book: 1998 / Michel Tournier (born in 1924) is not only one of the top five French prose writers, but over the past thirty years has been the most the most widely read contemporary writer—a living classic. The collection "Philosophical Tale" includes Tournier's best short stories, united by the genre of a fairy tale, in which the writer sees the salvation of the artist. Behind the traditional realistic form of Tournier’s works hides a second, symbolic plan, and seemingly everyday life turns into a parable about a man in the modern world, a man in whom, no matter who he is or what he does, lives a dream of beauty.