20 Tales of California: A Rare Collection of Western Stories Book

I enjoyed "taking a break" with this book; its humorous style and short story format made it ideal for filling in odd moments throughout the day and providing relief from heavier reading.

I really can't understand why any careful reader would think this book dull. True, most of the stories utilize the same main themes (cuckoldry being the most common, I think), but the quality of the writing makes the common-theme stories unique and engaging throughout. If something seems odd or nonsensical upon the first reading, I would suggest going back over the passage to look for double (or triple, in some cases) meanings -- I definitely would have missed a lot of the charming humor Balzac employs if I had not slowed down at certain points when reading his work. I'm sure a lot of his "pun power" was lost in translation, but the editor of the edition I read made quite an effort to fill-in the English reader to the lost complexity whenever he could, a practice I found very helpful.

I loved the amazing engravings featured in the work -- their complexity and macabre styling was quite impressive, so don't skip by them if you happen to have an edition where they are included.