Master storyteller Guy De Maupassant covered the full range in his short fiction, by turns as realist as Balzac, as romantic as Dumas, as naturalist as Zola, as decadent as Lorrain or as Gothic as Poe. What a powerful, versatile imagination. This collection of short stories includes three well-known classics – Boule De Suif, The Piece of String, Madame Tellier’s Establishment – but I will focus on four very short tales that, by telling detail and the author’s grasp of the nuances of psychology, capture the human heart.A VendettaIn a tiny Italian fishing cottage built on a mountainside overlooking the sea, a widow lives alone with her adult son and dog named Frisky. But one night tragedy strikes: after a quarrel, the victim of underhandedness and betrayal, her son, Antoine, is knifed by one Nicolas Ravolati, who escapes back across the sea to Sardinia. After the son’s body is brought back to the cottage, the old grieving widow sits next to howling, grieving Frisky and then bends over the body and says, “Don’t worry my boy, my poor child, I will avenge you. Do you hear me? It’s your mother’s promise, and your mother always keeps her word, you know that.” In the days that follow, looking out at sea in the direction of Sardinia, she can discern the white spec that is the home town of Nicolas Ravolati. But what can she, so old and so weak, possibly do to avenge her son? Then, ah, Maupassant, you clever master! We read: “One night, as Frisky began to howl, the mother has a sudden inspiration, the fierce vindictive inspiration of a savage.” What unfolds is simply unforgettable. Thanks, Guy. Frisky, love that dog’s name.The ModelHow deep is our love; how extreme our emotions: what moves us to sacrifice our lives; why would we be willing to destroy everything in a fit of passion? A short tale of love, obsession, remorse and more love. This Maupassant story of a painter and his wife reminds me of how we as humans can develop our minds to be super-sharp, our bodies to be incredibly strong and flexible, but what about the emotions? Curiously enough, the emotions play such a major role, enough to keep us and the world spinning round and round and round.Two FriendsHow to articulate the close bond of friendship amid the stupidity of war, the warm blood of humanity amid the cold blood of inhumanity? Maupassant captures the human, all too human in this tale of two Parisians, French to their marrow, as they decide, after a few drinks, to brave the chances of encountering Prussian soldiers in order to relive the simple pleasure of fishing they both enjoyed out in the countryside prior to the war. The artistry of every single touch of character, bit of dialogue and unfolding of events is a stroke of storytelling genius.The MinuetDuring a discussion amid friends, an elderly bachelor who stepped over many a dead body during his years of military service and witnessed multiple additional tragedies in his long life, spoke up: “The crude violence of nature or man may bring cries of horror or indignation to our lips, but it does not wring the heart or send the shiver down the spine, as does the sight of certain heart-rending, though trivial incidents. . . . Suddenly there opens before us a chink of that mysterious door leading to the intricate maze of the subconscious mind with its incurable misery, the more deep-seated because apparently not acute, the more agonizing because apparently indefinable, the more enduring because apparently imaginary; these persists in the soul as it were a trail of sadness, an after-taste of bitterness, a feeling of disillusion, which it takes years to dispel.”The old bachelor then goes on to relay an experience he had many years ago at the Luxembourg garden in Paris whilst a young law student, when he would frequently visit this grand old 18th century-style garden in his leisure hours and indulge in dreamy philosophical musings. On a few such outing, he noticed there was another person, an oddly dressed little old gentlemen who also frequented the garden. On those occasions when the two of them had a chance encounter, they exchanged pleasantries but then the bachelor observed something peculiar: “Suddenly one morning, thinking himself quite alone, he began making strange movements; first a few little jumps, then a bow, then he executed an entrechant, which still showed agility in spite of his spindly legs; then he began a graceful pirouette, hopping and jigging up and down in the oddest way, smiling to an imaginary audience, bowing with his hand on his heart, contorting his poor old body like a marionette, waving pathetically ridiculous greetings to the empty air. He was dancing!” What happens in a future meeting with this odd gentlemen burns a hole deep in the old bachelor’s memory. As our bachelor wryly observes, such is the irrationality of life.
Insightful, humane, modern --these are some of the wordsthat strike after reading Maupassant's stories and novels.Never mind the puritanical comments on this site.Maupassant touches deep chords of feeling -- the chordsof a full symphony. His characters refuse to be defeated insidetheir hearts; his irony pleads the case of human nature. But,always, Maupassant sees human pretense. Maupassant's people --sometimes flawed, limited, foolish -- pass through enoughexperience, as did he, to bear the look at humanity itself.(The great director Max Ophuls filmed 3 stories under thetitle, "Le Plaisir." A work of consummate beauty). "The Jewels" is considered x many superior to his morepop "The Necklace." In the former, a gov clerk, married toa simple beauty, enjoys sending her off to the opera (withfriends) when she's wearing her paste jewels. Ah, she lovesthe fake glitteries so much, she finds more. Struck downby pneumonia, she dies. Husby decides to sell her junk anddiscovers they're worth a fortune--.In "The Matter With Andre," a wife's lover pinches her infantblack-blue to make him stop crying when they're abed. Whenhusby returns and sees the scarred bebe...he fires the nanny"who found it impossible to find another situation."A handsome buck, doing the quadrille at a club inMontmartre, collapses on the dance floor and it's discoveredthat he's wearing "The Mask." The real face is that of awrinkled relic. (See: Ophuls film).In his short career, Maupassant left astonishing stories.
Do You like book Selected Short Stories (1971)?
I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but every time I read a great book, a book that captured me completely, left me out - the - world at the end, and (in this case) also depressed about my life, I cannot express my feelings. My mind just goes..blank. That lost feeling, that cannot be expressed. Or well it can be described at least: a feeling that makes you want to curl up in a corner and stare in the "nothingness" of your life. You stare without staring though, because you cannot make your brain wake up. It seems in stand by, trying to recover and realize that the reality that surrounds you is the reality in which you must live in. And usually you might thing because the plot, story or character made you want to live in the book...this is not the case. The reality stares at you because what you read was so...life - understanding. (Is that even a word? Just don't mind) Philosophically speaking Guy de Maupassant, through the occurrences of his characters he teaches you something..you didn't even think of. "What if it was to happen to me? What would I do?" And you remain there thinking... "Oh. my. god" The ironic part is that it isn't THAT deep nor complex. We're not talking about Dante's Divina Commedia, nor a work of articulated writing, and Freud - style of thought. But for some reason this book made me reflect. The stories, what happens to the characters, the simplicity..made me wonder a few times. A book that should be read, not a must, but I recommend it.
—Asia
A really good collection of short stories with humour, love, sexuality brutality and the supernatural flowing through most of Maupassant's stories. It's also good to see a bunch of stories without preachy morals or even a point, as some tales meander on and end without much really happening. Well worth reading as Maupassant displays the charms of French writing without being too in your face. However I'm not sure that there is much re-read value in the book as the stories tend to be memorable and lack plot twists that a reader may easily forget because of the complication involved.
—Rebecca
Pétition d’Un Viveur Malgré Lui by Guy de MaupassantMan versus WomanMaugham wrote about Maupassant. In The Summing Up, we can read that Maugham had a high opinion of Guy de Maupassant, and even stole some of his books from a book shop, when he was in Paris and did not have enough money to buy a work that he evidently longed for.In another chapter of the same Summing Up, we learn that Mauppasant had been lucky to have a master-mentor : Gustave Flaubert, probably one of the best five writers ever.Flaubert had taught Maupassant one crucial « secret »- to wait with the publication of his works. Maugham wished he had had the same chance, to have someone instruct him, before he rushed to publish works which he would later regret.Otherwise, Flaubert was renowned for the great pains he took over any word he wrote.Pétition d’Un Viveur Malgré Lui starts like a plea in a court of law, addressed to the Jury, judge and magistrats : -t« Je suis vieux, Messieurs, j’ai beaucoup aimé, ou plutôt, souvent aimé. Mon pauvre Coeur, bien meurtri, frissonne encore au souvenir des anciennes tendresses »Our hero continues with a « plea bargain » where he tries to make the point that, although the woman is generally regarded as « weaker, innocent, delicate and therefore the victim », in the view of the Viveur, it is exactly the opposite that is the truth :-t« … je sois le plus timide, le plus indécis, le plus hésitant des hommes.Je suis si timide que jamais, peut-être, je n'aurais osé... ce que vous savez, si les femmes n'avaient osé pour moi. Et j'ai compris depuis, en y songeant, que neuf fois sur dix c'est l'homme qui est séduit, capté, accaparé, enlacé de liens terribles, lui le séducteur que vous flétrissez. Il est la proie, la femme est le chasseur”And then the lawyer who speaks on behalf of all men, not that anybody called him to do that, argues that women are indeed the seducers. I’d say that he is right !And now there would be an outcry from the two females that read my comments…Before they continue and see that I only Half agree.With us all being equal, men and women :The Viveur is right in 50% of the cases : women seduce men in half of all cases, and the men are responsible for the rest.-tEst-ce qu'une femme parle, doit parler, peut parler ? Est-ce qu'un regard comme elle sait en avoir n'est pas plus provocant, plus impudique, plus clair que toutes nos déclarations brûlantes ?At times, this short tale reads like J’accuse by Zola. But the truth is where Arristotle has placed him : in the middle.The man and the married woman become lovers and then the Viveur, officer in the French army, is sent away, only to find that his lover wants to run away with him.The man is not at all keen on the idea and tries to persuade the woman to forget about it. But then accusations fly : -t« you seduced me and now you abandon me ! »He tries to reason with the loving woman, to no avail. Faced with her lover’s refusal, the woman leaves, but later she tries to commit suicide. One of her friends comes to reproach this to the officer. After a month, she is reported ill and only the return of the lover would cure her.For two years they live in adultery in Italy. Then the husbands shows up, but not as a jealous avenger, but as a man interested in the welfare of his kids.And in a funny, if not tragic turn of events, both the tired, bored lover and the cheated husband pray her to return with her spouse. She shouts :-t„Vous êtes deux misérables !"After this, in another sardonic remark, the Viveur says that -t« Elle avait l'air de ma mère”So we now have the Oedipus complex entering the game. And as a final comment before resting his case :-t« L'amour est toute la vie des femmes. Elles jouent avec nous comme les chats avec les souris. La jeune fille cherche le mari le plus avantageux qu'elle pourra trouver.”La Parure, by the same Maupassant is mentioned by Maugham as an example of a short poignant story. And this one is in the same mould.You can read the story here :http://athena.unige.ch/athena/selva/m...
—Realini
