A Child's Revenge

Paul Bourget’s haunting and highly disturbing story of a childhood experience in the Franco-Prussian war

A young boy’s home is occupied by Austrian officers, who feast on their best food, guzzle their champagne, and smash their belongings, all while threatening worse reprisals if they do not bring coffee, which is impossible to get during this period. When the boy’s sick father tries to intervene, he is violently ill treated. The child decides to take his own revenge.