Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, comte de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam (I love guys with 14 names) was a prolific 19th century French writer. Vera is one of fourteen short stories in the collection Contes Cruels (or Sardonic Tales) first published in French in 1880. I don't have translations for most of the others and that's fine with me. I desire only...Vera.