When the extraordinary memoir La B?tarde was published in 1964, the literary world was impressed and scandalized by the book's explicit account of lesbian love. And its author, Violette Leduc, became an instant celebrity, with 150,000 copies of the book sold in its first year. Her short novel The Lady and the Little Fox Fur first publihsed in 1967,deals with a different side of life, focusing on a lonely old woman whose fortune and dignity are gone. Driven to despair she discovers peace of mind by forming a strange and touching relationship with the everyday objects of the city. Written with the same passion and stunningly observed attention to detail as La B?tarde, it is a perfectly formed minor masterpiece.