Book excerpt: Laforgue's collection of stories, the Moralites Legendaires, freely modernizes established stories of literary tradition according to the stereotypical preoccupations of 1880s decadence. In this first complete study of the Moralites Legendaires in any language, Laforgue's stories emerge as examples of parody in its most creative form, among the most original prose creations of the late 19th-century.