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Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant (b. Aug 5, 1850) became one of
France's greatest storytellers ever in a short life of
forty-two years. Born in Dieppe to noble ancestry,
Maupassant lived with his mother after age eleven as his
parents separated. In 1869, he studied law but joined
the army during Franco-Prussian War. He became close to
the famed writer Gustave Flaubert, who was a godson to
Maupassant's maternal grandfather. Flaubert introduced
Maupassant to leading writers and influenced him deeply.
Maupassant worked as a civil servant for eight years. In
1880, he published his first anthology Soirées de Medan
and his masterpiece, Boule De Suif (Ball of Fat), a
story about a prostitute set in the war he had served.
He wrote some 300 short stories, six novels, three
travel books and one volume of verse. He became rich but
was tormented and even tried suicide. He died of
syphilis on July 6, 1893.
The Best of Maupassant
Widely hailed as a naturalist author, Maupassant
based the subjects of his stories on the life he saw and
lived – the Norman peasantry, Franco-Prussian War,
bourgeoisie and fashionable Paris, among others. This
anthology comprises stories that verily portray his
accurate observation and flawless writing technique that
is marked often by wry humor. Nearly every story is
built around ordinary episodes from routine lives in
which he never fails to expose the unknown and hidden
sides of his characters. His stories depict a sweeping
range – from he tragic to the comic aspects of life.
Frustration, immorality, disillusionment and even
madness – in men as well as women – were just some of
the issues he kept returning to without sermonizing. In
classic simplicity and clarity, Maupassant is a modern
example of the traditional French psychological realism.
Countless writers, including Somerset Maugham and O.
Henry, are believed to have fashioned their literature
on Maupassant's brilliant pen. |
