Recent Examples on the WebThe French word conte is tricksy, even contradictory, but what I had always been taught is that contes are more anecdotal than conventional short stories, coming out of the tradition of oral tales and often devoted to a single theme. Lauren Groff, The New York Review of Books, 23 Apr. 2020 Today, though, her powerful fiction is too little read, apart from a handful of eerie tales and contes cruels. Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 5 June 2019