In a moment, a multitude

Owing to the ruthless, plangent economy of its brushstrokes, the best way to showcase Félix Fénéon's Novels in Three Lines is to simply quote it:

...M. Colombe, of Rouen, killed himself with a bullet yesterday. His wife had shot three of them at him in March, and their divorce was imminent.

...At census time, the mayor of Montirat, Tarn, nudged the figures upward. His eagerness to govern a multitude cost him his job.

...Fearless boys of 13 and 11, Deligne and Julien were going off "to hunt in the desert." They were brought back to Paris from Le Havre.

[Translated by Luc Sante.]