Michel Tournier (b. 1924) is not only one of the top five French prose writers, but for the last thirty years he has been 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.