Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) - in full Henry-René-Albert-Guy de Maupassant
French author of the naturalistic school, generally considered the greatest French short story writer. Maupassant took the subjects for his pessimistic stories and novels chiefly from the behavior of the bourgeoisie, the Franco-Prussian War, and the fashionable life of Paris. During the last years of life, Maupassant suffered from mental illness.
"Now listen carefully: Marriage, to me, is not a chain but an association. I must be free, entirely unfettered, in all my actions -my coming and my going; I can tolerate neither control, jealousy, nor criticism as to my conduct. I pledge my word, however, never to compromise the name of the man I marry, nor to render him ridiculous in the eyes of the world. But that man must promise to look upon meas an equal, an ally, and not as an inferior, or as an obedient, submissive wife. My ideas, I know, are not like those of other people, but I shall never change them." (from Bel Ami, 1885)
Guy de Maupassant was probably born at the Château de Miromesniel, Dieppe. His paternal ancestors were noble, and his maternal grandfather, Paul Le Poittevin, was Gustave Flaubert's godfather. Maupassant spent his childhood in Normandy, the scene of several of his tales. When Maupassant was 11, his parents separated, and he was brought up by his mother in the picturesque coastal town of Étretat. While studying at the Rouen Lycée, after being expelled from the seminary at Yvetot, Maupassant started to write poetry.
In his teens Maupassant was shown, by the poet Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909), a mummified hand. He used this haunting image in his early short story 'La Main Ecorchée' (1875). The gift of a photographic memory enabled him to gather a storehouse of information, which later helped him in his stories about the Norman people. From Flaubert, who was obsessed with the writer's craft, Maupassant learned the exactness and accuracy of observations and balance and precision of style. However, by nature Maupassant himself was more light-hearted and more cynical than Flaubert.
In 1869 Maupassant joined his stockbroker brother in Paris, where he started to study law at the Sorbonne, but soon, at age 20, he volunteered to serve in the army during Franco-Prussian War. After returning to Paris, Maupassant joined the literary circle of Gustave Flaubert. The famous writer was a friend of Maupassant's mother's friend, and introduced his protégé to Émile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, and Henry James.
Between the years 1872 and 1880 Maupassant was a civil servant, first at the ministry of maritime affairs, then at the ministry of education. He hated to work and spent much of his free time in pursuit of women. Under the pseudonym of Guy de Valmont, Maupassant contributed articles to the newspapers.
As a poet Maupassant made his debut with DES VERS, which appeared in 1880. In the same year he published with other "Naturalist" writers his masterpiece, 'Boule de Suif' (Ball of Fat, 1880), in Emile Zola's anthology Les Soirées de Medan (1880) . The theme of the anthology was the Franco-Prussian War. Other writers included Zola and J.-K. Huysmans, but Maupassant's contribution, considered a manifestation of naturalism, is the most famous. Huysmans, Maupassant, Zola, and Paul Alexis among others were known as Le Groupe de Médan - the name was drawn from the house where Zola lived.
Set during the Franco-Prussian War, the story tells of well-known prostitute, nicknamed 'Boule de Suif', who is traveling in a coach with bourgeois fellow passengers. They are detained by a Prussian officer, who will not allow the coach to proceed until Boule de Suif gives her to him, which she refuses on principle to do: "Kindly tell that scoundrel, that cur, that carrion of a Prussian, that I will never consent--you understand?--never, never, never!" However, the other passagers start to get bored and press her to yield to the officers demands. After swallowing her pride, she spends a night with him and in the morning she is treated by the group as if she had been infected with some deadly disease. "No one looked at her, no one thought of her. She felt herself swallowed up in the scorn of these virtuous creatures, who had first sacrificed, then rejected her as a thing useless and unclean. Then she remembered her big basket full of the good things they had so greedily devoured: the two chickens coated in jelly, the pies, the pears, the four bottles of claret; and her fury broke forth like a cord that is overstrained, and she was on the verge of tears. She made terrible efforts at self-control, drew herself up, swallowed the sobs which choked her; but the tears rose nevertheless, shone at the brink of her eyelids, and soon two heavy drops coursed slowly down her cheeks."
It has often been said that the American director John Ford borrowed the plot to his film Stagecoach (1939). Ford knew the story, but Ernest Haycox's character study 'Stage to Lordsburg' served for the director as the framework for his famous morality play. Partly for commercial reasons, the Stagecoach team hide their 'arty' source. In the film a group of people travel by stage to Lordsburg, passing through Indian territory. The socially respected passengers turn out to be hypocrites, thieves, and unworthy characters, whereas the outsiders win their faults or show bravery and compassion. Claire Trevor played the good-hearted prostitute Dallas. John Wayne, in the role of the Ringo Kidd, became a star.
During the 1880s Maupassant wrote some 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and one volume of verse. Probably Maupassant fictionalized true occurrences or tales told to him, but his experiences as a reporter and columnist provided him material. In 1881 he reported on the French campaign against Tunisia. His tales were marked by objectivity, highly controlled style, and sometimes sheer comedy. Usually they were built around simple episodes from everyday life, which revealed the hidden sides of people. Maupassant has been accused of misogynism, but his portrayal of prostitutes was sympathetic. According to Maupassant, a modern novel aims not at "telling a story or entertaining us or touching our hearts but at forcing us to think and understand the deeper, hidden meaning of events".
On several occasions the tales were narrated in the first person or were told by a named character. In 'The Jewels of M. Lantin' the chief clerk of the Minister of the Interior marries the daughter of a provincial tax collector. He is unbelievably happy. She has only two small vices - her love of the theater and her passion for artificial jewels. One wintry evening she comes from the opera shivering with cold and a week later she dies. Lantin is haunted by his memories, and plunges into poverty. He takes her necklace to a jeweler who tells that it is very valuable. Lantin has believed that his wife's jewelry were fakes because she could not have purchased valuable items. He realizes that they were gifts and the truth makes him weep bitterly. "As he walked along, Lantin said to himself, "How easy it is to be happy when you're rich! With money you can even shake off your sorrows; you can go or stay as you please! You can travel and amuse yourself." He sells her jewelry, resigns from his work, and enjoys the theater for the first time in his life. "Six months later he married. His second wife was a most worthy woman, but rather difficult. She made his life unbearable."
Maupassant's first novel was UNE VIE (A Woman's Life, 1883), a naturalistic story about the life of a Norman woman, Jeanne de Lamare, whose kindliness is her strength but also a vice. "And now she was leaving the convent, radiant, full of youthful sap and hunger for happiness, primed for all the joyful experiences, all the charming occurrences, that she had already mentally rehearsed in solitary anticipation throughout her idle daylight moments and the long hours of night." The episodic novel BEL-AMI (1885) depicted an unscrupulous journalist, Georges Duroy, whose success is build on hypocrisy, decadence, and corruption of the society. Maupassant named his little sailing yacht after the book.
PIERRE ET JEAN (1888) was a psychological study of adultery of a young wife and two brothers. The novel was thought to be immoral - infidelity is not actually condemned. In Luis Buñuel's screen adaptation of the novel from 1951, which the director later called his worst film, the emphasis is on the woman's experience. Buñuel made also other changes: the story is transported to modern Mexico. The ending is, ambiguously, a happy one.
Maupassant's most upsetting horror story, 'Le Horla' (1887), was about madness and suicide. The nameless protagonist is perhaps a syphilitic. In the beginning the narrator, a prosperous young Norman gentleman, sees a Brazilian three-master boat flow by his house. He salutes it and the gesture evidently summons the Horla, and invisible being. The Horlas are cousins of the vampires and their advent means the end of the reign of man. Our narrator eventually sets fire to his own house, to destroy his Horla, but only his servants die in the fire. He realizes that the Horla is still alive and decides to kill himself.
Maupassant had contracted syphilis in his 20s and the disease later caused increasing mental disorder. Also Maupassat's sight had troubled him at intervals, he suffered from severe headaches and used narcotics. Critics have charted the author's developing illness through his semi-autobiographical stories of abnormal psychology, but the theme of mental disorder is present in his first collection, LA MAISON TELLIER (1881), published at the height of his health. 'A Night in Paris' is a paranoid nightmare: its narrator feels compelled to walk the streets. In 'Who Knows?' the narrator sufferers from delusions about the furniture of his house, and in 'A Madman' a judge commits murder, just for the experience, and condemns an innocent man to death for the crime.
Maupassant's horror fiction consists of some 39 stories, only a tenth of his total. The nightmarish stories have much in common with Edgar Allan Poe's supernatural visions. Recurring theme is madness.'The Inn' has much similarities with Stephen King's famous novel The Shining. Maupassant describes two caretakers, living in the French Alps in a remote inn, which is surrounded by snow six months and unreachable. When the older caretaker goes missing, the younger in his loneliness loses his reason. 'The Hand' is about a severed, living human hand which. Despite it is chained up, it escapes and strangles its owner. The story has inspired several writers and movie directors, such as Robert Florey, Henry Cass, and Oliver Stone. Maupassant's other supernatural stories include 'The Englishman', 'The Apparation / The Spectre / The Ghost / The Story of a Law Suit', 'Was It a Dream', and 'Who Knows'.
"Monsieur de Maupassant est certainement un des plus francs conteurs de ce pays oú l'on fit tant de contes, et de si bons. Sa langue, forte, simple, naturelle, a un goût de terroir qui nous la fait aimer chèrement. Il possède les trois qualités de l'écrivain français: d'abord la clarté, puis encore la clarté, et enfin la clarté. Il a l'esprit de mesure et d'ordre qui est celui de notre race." (Anatole France, la Vie littéraire, tome Ier, 1888)
NOTRE COEUR (1890), a psychological love story, was Maupassant's last completed novel. On January 2, in 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat. He was committed to the celebrated private asylum of Dr. Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris, where he died next year. Maupassant's style has been imitated by countless writers and his influence can be seen on such masters of the short story as Anton Chekhov, W. Somerset Maugham and O. Henry. A number of films have been based on Maupassant's stories, such as Jean Renoir's masterpiece Une partie de campagne (1936), Boule de Suif by Christian-Jacque's (1945), and Max Ophüls's Le plaisir 1952). Other movie adaptations: La père Milon, 1908; Le Collier, 1909; La Petite Roque, 1910; Yvette, 1916; L'Ordonnance, 1921; Ce cochon de Morin, 1923; Le Rosier de Mme Husson, 1932, dir. by Bernard Deschamps; L'Ordonnance, 1933, dir. by Victor Tourjansky; 1936; Lumière dans la nuit, 1943, dir. by Helmut Kautner; Mademoiselle Fifi, 1944, dir. by Robert Wise; Deux Amis, 1949, dir. by Dimitri Kirsanoff; Le Rosier de Mme Husson, 1950, dir. by Jean Boyer; The Knife Thrower, 1951, Maxwell Weinberg; Trois Femmes, 1951, dir. by André Michel; Mari et femme, 1952, dir. by Edouardo de Filippo; Ça commence par un péche (Am anfang war er Sünde), 1954, dir. by Franz Cap; The True and the False, 1955, dir. Michaël Road; La Chevelure, 1961, dir. by Ado Kyrou; Il lavoro (episode in Boccaccio 79), 1962, Luchino Visconti; L'Étrange Histoire du juge Cordier, 1962, dir. by Réginald Le Borg; Le Dernier Matin de Guy de Maupassant, 1963, dir. by Maurice Fasquelle; L'Héritage, 1963, dir. by Ricardo Alvertosa; Masculin Féminin, 1965, dir. by Jean-Luc Godard; Rosalie, 1966, dir. by Walerian Borowczyk
For further reading: La vie et l'œuvre de Guy de Maupassant by Edouard Maynial (1906); Souvenirs sur Maupassant by A. Lumbroso (1905); Souvenirs sur Maupassant by F. Tassart (1911); Guy de Maupassant by René Dumesnil (1933); Maupassant: a Lion in the Path by Francis Steegmüller (1941); L'art de Maupassant d'aprés ses variantes by Jean Thorval (1950); Guy de Maupassant et l'art du roman by A. Vial (1954); Maupassant the Novelist by Edward D. Sullivan (1954); Nouveaux Souvenirs intimes sur Maupassant by F. Tassart and P. Cogny (1962); Illusion and Reality by John L. Ducan (1973); Guy de Maupassant by Leo Tolstoy (1974); Woman's Revenge: The Chronology of Dispossession in Maupassant's Fiction by Mary Donaldson-Evans (1986); Maupassant: The Semiotics of Text by Paul Perron (1988); Love and Nature, Unity and Doubling in the Novels of Maupassant, ed. by Bertrand Logan Ball, Helen Roulston (1989), Struggling Under the Destructive Glance: Androgyny in the Novels of Guy de Maupassant by Rachel M. Hartig (1991); Maupassant and the American Short Story by Richard Fusco (1994); The Art of Rupture by Charles J. Stivale (1994); St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, ed. by David Pringle (1998, see entry by Chris Morgan); Guy de Maupassant by Michael Bettencourt (1999); Maupassant's Fiction And The Darwinian View Of Life by Laurence A. Gregorio (2005) - See also: Axel Munthe - Suomeksi on julkaistu mm. novellivalikoimat Hätähuuto y.m. kertomuksia, Valittuja novelleja 1-2, (suom. Kasimir Leino), Maupassantin parhaat, Suuret kertomukset, Huviretki maalle ja muita kertomuksia.
Selected works:
HISTOIRE DU VIEUX TEMPS, 1879
DES VERS, 1880
BOULE DE SUIF, 1880 - Ball of Fat (translated and edited by Ernest Boyd, in The Collected Novels and Tales of Guy de Maupassant, 1922-1926) - Rasvahelmi (suom. Reino Hakamies, 1945) - films: The Woman Disputed, 1928, dir. Henry King, Sam Taylor, starring Norma Talmadge Pyshka, 1934, dir. by Mihail Romm, starring Galina Sergeyeva; Maria no Oyuki, 1935, dir. by Kenji Mizokuchi; Stagecoach (loosely adapted from the story), 1939, dir. by John Ford; 1945, dir. by Christian-Jacque, starring Micheline Presle Hua gu niang, 1951, dir. Shilin Zhu, starring Li Hua Li
LA MAISON DE TELLIER, 1881 - Madame Tellier's Establishment (tr. Roger Colet, in Selected Short Stories, 1973) / The Tellier House (translated by Desmond Flower) / The House of Madame Tellier and Other Stories (translated by Marjorie Laurie) - Tellierin talo (suom.) - films: 1981, dir. Pierre Chevalier, starring Arlette Didier, Olivier Mathot, Françoise Blanchard, Michel Tugot-Doris, Antonio Mayans; TV film 2008, prod. M.F.P. (France), dir. Élisabeth Rappeneau
CONTES DE LA BÉCASSE, 1883
MADEMOISELLE FIFI, 1883 - Mademoiselle Fifi and Other Stories (tr. Roger Colet, 1993) - Neiti Fifi ja muita novelleja (suom. Elina Hytönen ja Katri Ingman) - films: Doch isterzannoy Pol'shi, 1915, dir. Aleksandr Chargonin; 1944, prod. RKO Radio Pictures, dir. Robert Wise (based on Mademoiselle Fifi and Boule de Suif), starring Simone Simon, John Emery, Kurt Kreuger, Alan Napier
UNE VIE, 1883 - Une vie; or, The history of the Heart (in The Life Work of Henri René Guy de Maupassant, Volume 9) / A Woman's Life (translated by Marjorie Laurie, 1942) / A Life: The Humble Truth (tr. Roger Pearson, 1999) - Elämän tarina (suomennos: Martti Wuori, 1918) / Naiskohtalo (suom. Arvi Linnus) - films: Onna no isshô, 1928, dir. Yoshinobu Ikeda; Räkna de lyckliga stunderna blott, 1944, dir. Rune Carlsten; Naiskohtaloita, 1947, dir. by Toivo Särkkä, starring Rauli Tuomi, Eeva-Kaarina Volanen, Rauha Rentola, Doris Hovimaa; Ta de yi sheng, 1958, prod. Kong Ngee (Hong Kong), dir. Sun-fung Lee 1958, dir. by Astruc, starring Maria Schell, Christian Marquand, Pascale Petit Yeojaui ilsaeng, 1968, prod. Shin Films (South Korea), dir. Sang-ok Shin TV film 2005, dir. Élisabeth Rappeneau, starring Barbara Schulz, Boris Terral, Catherine Jacob, Wladimir Yordanoff, Marie Denarnaud
MISS HARRIET, 1884 - Miss Harriet (transl.) - Miss Harriet (suom. Timo Tuura, 1909)
AU SOLEIL, 1884 - Au soleil; or, African Wanderings (in Selection from the Writings of Guy de Maupassant, Volume 4)
YVETTE, 1884 - Yvette, a Novellette, and Ten Other Stories (tr. Mrs. John Galsworthy, 1916) - films: 1927, prod. Néo-Film (France), dir. by Alberto Cavalcanti; Die Tochter einer Kurtisane, 1938, prod. Meteor-Film GmbH (Germany), dir. by Wolfgang Liebeneiner; TV film 1971, dir. Jean-Pierre Marchand, starring France Dougnac
LES SŒURS RONDOLI, 1884 - The Rondoli Sisters (transl.)
MONSIEUR PARENT, 1884 - Monsieur Parent, and Short Stories (tr. 1910)
TOINE, 1895 - Toine (transl.)
BEL-AMI, 1885 - Bel ami; or, The History of a Scoundrel (in The Life Work of Henri René Guy de Maupassant, Volume 13) / Bel-Ami (translators: Ernest Boyd; Margaret Mauldon; Douglas Parmeé) - Kaunis ystävä (suom. Arvi Nuormaa, 1926) / Bel-Ami (suom. Arvi Nuormaa) - films: 1919, dir. Augusto Genina; 1937, dir. by Willi Forst, starring Willi Forst, Olga Tschechowa, Johannes Riemann; 1947, prod. Filmex (Mexico), dir. Antonio Momplet; The Private Affairs of Bel-Ami, 1947, dir. by Albert Lewin, starring George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Ann Dvorak, John Carradine; 1954, dir. by Louis Daquin, starring Johannes Heesters, Gretl Schörg, Marianne Schönauer; TV film 1968, prod. Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR), dir. by Helmut Käutner; TV film 1971, dir. John Davies; 1976, prod. Cinématographique Universal (Sweden), dir. Mac Ahlberg; Milácek, TV film 2002, dir. Dusan Klein; TV film 2005, prod. Studio International, dir. Philippe Triboit
CONTES DU JOUR ET DE LA NUIT, 1885 (contains 'La Parure' or 'The Necklace') - films: The Necklace, 1909, dir. D.W. Griffith, starring Rose King, Herbert Prior, Caroline Harris, Mary Pickford; The Diamond Necklace, 1921, dir. Denison Clift; Yichuan zhenzhu, 1926, dir. Zeyuan Li; Stimulantia, 1969, dir. Hans Abramson, Hans Alfredson
LA PETITE ROQUE, 1886 - Little Roque, and Other Stories (tr. Storm Jameson)
CONTES ET NOUVELLES, 1886
LE HORLA, 1887 - The Horla (translated by Charlotte Mandell; Roger Colet, in Selected Short Stories, 1971) / Hallucination - Painajaisuni (suom. Eila Kostamo, 1966) - films: short film 1966, dir. Jean-Daniel Pollet; El Horla, short film 1969, dir. Antonio Castro; Diário de um Território Ocupado, short film 1993, dir. Caio Amado; animation 1993, narrated by Jean-Claude Donda; Hantises, 1997, prod. Caro-Line Production (France), dir. Michel Ferry
MONT-ORIOL, 1887 - Mont-Oriolin kylpylä (suom. Arvi Nuormaa, 1929)
SUR L'EAU, 1888 - Sur l’eau, The Magic Couch, and Other Stories (translated by Albert M. C. McMaster, B. A., A. E. Henderson, B. A., Mme. Quesada et al., 1923) / Afloat (translated by Marlo Johnston; Douglas Parme)
PIERRE ET JEAN, 1888 - The Two Brothers (tr. Clara Bell, 1890) / Pierre and Jean (translated by Hugh Craig, 1890; Clara Bell, 1902; Lowell Bair, 1994) - Veljekset (suom. F. A. C., 1890; Rakel Kansanen, 1919) - films: 1924, dir. by Donatien; 1943, dir. by André Cayatte, starring Gilbert Gil, Bernard Lancret; Une mujer sin amor, 1951, dir. by Luis Buñuel, starring Rosario Granados, Tito Junco, Julio Villarreal, Joaquín Cordero; Die Brüder, TV film 1958, prod. NWRV (West Germany), dir. Egon Monk; TV film 1973, dir. Michel Favart
LE ROSIER DE MADAME HUSSON, 1888 - Madame Husson's May King / Madame Husson's Rosier (by Albert McNaster, A.E. Henderson, Madame Quesada et al., in Complete Short Stories) - films: 1932, dir. Bernard-Deschamps, starring Fernandel, Françoise Rosay; 1950, dir. Jean Boyer, starring Bourvil, Albert Duvaleix, Christian Lude, Henri Vilbert, Germaine Dermoz; Albert Herring, TV film 1985, prod. Glyndebourne Festival Opera, based on Benjamin Britten's chamber opera, dir. Peter Hall, libretto Eric Crozier
FORT COMME LA MORT, 1889 - Strong as Death (tr. Albert M. C. McMaster)
LA MAIN GAUCHE, 1889
NOTRE COEUR, 1890 - Notre cœur = The Human Heart (translated by Alexina Loranger Donovan, 1890) / Notre coeur; or, A Woman's Pastime (in The Life Work of Henri René Guy de Maupassant, Volume 5) / Alien Hearts (tr. by Richard Howard) - Ihmissydän (suom. Arvi Nuormaa, 1949)
L'INUTILE BEAUTÉ, 1890
QUI SAIT?, 1890 - Who Knows? (Maupassant's last story)
LA VIE ERRANTE, 1890 - La Vie Errante, Allouma, Toine and Other Stories (tr. Albert M.C. McMaster, A.E. Henderson, Mme. Quesada and Others, 1911)
MUSOTTE, 1891 - Musotte or A Critical Situation (tr. in Complete Works, Volume XIV) - film 1920, prod. Tespi Film (Italy), dir. Mario Corsi
LA PAIX DU MÉNAGRE, 1893 - A Paix Du Menage or A Comedy of Marriage (tr. in Complete Works, Volume XIV)
The Complete Short Stories, 1903 (trans. anon.)
Yvette - A Novellette, and Other Stories, 1904 (tr. Mrs. John Galsworthy)
ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES, 1907-10 (29 vols.)
The Miromesnil Edition of Guy de Maupassant, 1910 (8 vols., tr. A.E. Henderson, Madame Louise Quesada et al.)
The Second Odd Number: Thirteen Tales by Guy de Maupassant, 1917 (tr. Charles Henry White and Virginia Watson)
The Collected Novels and Tales of Guy de Maupassant, 1922-1926 (18 vols., tr. by Ernest Augustus Boyd and Storm Jameson, reprinted 1928)
The Works of Guy de Maupassant, 1923-1929 (10 vols., tr. Marjorie Laurie)
ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES ILLUSTRÉES, 1934 (15 vols.)
CHRONIQUES, ÉTUDES, CORRESPONDANCE DE GUY DE MAUPASSANT, 1940
LETTRES INÉDITES À GUTAVE FLAUBERT , 1941
CORRESPONDANCE INÉDITE, 1951
The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, 1955 (ed. by Artine Artinian)
Stories of Mystery and Terror, 1963 - Yön tarinat (tr. Janne Staffans, 1989)
CONTES DU SURNATUREL, 1967 - Tales of Supernatural Terror (ed. by Arnold Kellett)
Selected Short Stories, 1971 (tr. Roger Colet)
The Diary of a Madman, 1976 (ed. by Arnold Kellett)
A Night on the River and Other Strange Tales, 1976
CONTES FANTASTIQUES COMPLETS, 1984 (ed. by Anne Richter)
The Dark Side: Tales of Terror and Supernatural, 1989 (ed. by Arnold Kellett)
Mademoiselle Fifi and Other Stories, 1993 (tr. Roger Colet)
A Parisian Bourgeois' Sunday and Other Stories, 1997 (tr. Marlo Johnston)
The Necklace and Other Tales, 2003 (contains The Necklace, Butterball, The Tellier House, On the Water, Mademoiselle Fifi, The Mask, The Inn, A Day in the Country, The Hand, The Jewels, The Model, The Entity=The Horla; tr. by Joachim Neugroschel)
French author of the naturalistic school, generally considered the greatest French short story writer. Maupassant took the subjects for his pessimistic stories and novels chiefly from the behavior of the bourgeoisie, the Franco-Prussian War, and the fashionable life of Paris. During the last years of life, Maupassant suffered from mental illness.
"Now listen carefully: Marriage, to me, is not a chain but an association. I must be free, entirely unfettered, in all my actions -my coming and my going; I can tolerate neither control, jealousy, nor criticism as to my conduct. I pledge my word, however, never to compromise the name of the man I marry, nor to render him ridiculous in the eyes of the world. But that man must promise to look upon meas an equal, an ally, and not as an inferior, or as an obedient, submissive wife. My ideas, I know, are not like those of other people, but I shall never change them." (from Bel Ami, 1885)
Guy de Maupassant was probably born at the Château de Miromesniel, Dieppe. His paternal ancestors were noble, and his maternal grandfather, Paul Le Poittevin, was Gustave Flaubert's godfather. Maupassant spent his childhood in Normandy, the scene of several of his tales. When Maupassant was 11, his parents separated, and he was brought up by his mother in the picturesque coastal town of Étretat. While studying at the Rouen Lycée, after being expelled from the seminary at Yvetot, Maupassant started to write poetry.
In his teens Maupassant was shown, by the poet Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909), a mummified hand. He used this haunting image in his early short story 'La Main Ecorchée' (1875). The gift of a photographic memory enabled him to gather a storehouse of information, which later helped him in his stories about the Norman people. From Flaubert, who was obsessed with the writer's craft, Maupassant learned the exactness and accuracy of observations and balance and precision of style. However, by nature Maupassant himself was more light-hearted and more cynical than Flaubert.
In 1869 Maupassant joined his stockbroker brother in Paris, where he started to study law at the Sorbonne, but soon, at age 20, he volunteered to serve in the army during Franco-Prussian War. After returning to Paris, Maupassant joined the literary circle of Gustave Flaubert. The famous writer was a friend of Maupassant's mother's friend, and introduced his protégé to Émile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, and Henry James.
Between the years 1872 and 1880 Maupassant was a civil servant, first at the ministry of maritime affairs, then at the ministry of education. He hated to work and spent much of his free time in pursuit of women. Under the pseudonym of Guy de Valmont, Maupassant contributed articles to the newspapers.
As a poet Maupassant made his debut with DES VERS, which appeared in 1880. In the same year he published with other "Naturalist" writers his masterpiece, 'Boule de Suif' (Ball of Fat, 1880), in Emile Zola's anthology Les Soirées de Medan (1880) . The theme of the anthology was the Franco-Prussian War. Other writers included Zola and J.-K. Huysmans, but Maupassant's contribution, considered a manifestation of naturalism, is the most famous. Huysmans, Maupassant, Zola, and Paul Alexis among others were known as Le Groupe de Médan - the name was drawn from the house where Zola lived.
Set during the Franco-Prussian War, the story tells of well-known prostitute, nicknamed 'Boule de Suif', who is traveling in a coach with bourgeois fellow passengers. They are detained by a Prussian officer, who will not allow the coach to proceed until Boule de Suif gives her to him, which she refuses on principle to do: "Kindly tell that scoundrel, that cur, that carrion of a Prussian, that I will never consent--you understand?--never, never, never!" However, the other passagers start to get bored and press her to yield to the officers demands. After swallowing her pride, she spends a night with him and in the morning she is treated by the group as if she had been infected with some deadly disease. "No one looked at her, no one thought of her. She felt herself swallowed up in the scorn of these virtuous creatures, who had first sacrificed, then rejected her as a thing useless and unclean. Then she remembered her big basket full of the good things they had so greedily devoured: the two chickens coated in jelly, the pies, the pears, the four bottles of claret; and her fury broke forth like a cord that is overstrained, and she was on the verge of tears. She made terrible efforts at self-control, drew herself up, swallowed the sobs which choked her; but the tears rose nevertheless, shone at the brink of her eyelids, and soon two heavy drops coursed slowly down her cheeks."
It has often been said that the American director John Ford borrowed the plot to his film Stagecoach (1939). Ford knew the story, but Ernest Haycox's character study 'Stage to Lordsburg' served for the director as the framework for his famous morality play. Partly for commercial reasons, the Stagecoach team hide their 'arty' source. In the film a group of people travel by stage to Lordsburg, passing through Indian territory. The socially respected passengers turn out to be hypocrites, thieves, and unworthy characters, whereas the outsiders win their faults or show bravery and compassion. Claire Trevor played the good-hearted prostitute Dallas. John Wayne, in the role of the Ringo Kidd, became a star.
During the 1880s Maupassant wrote some 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and one volume of verse. Probably Maupassant fictionalized true occurrences or tales told to him, but his experiences as a reporter and columnist provided him material. In 1881 he reported on the French campaign against Tunisia. His tales were marked by objectivity, highly controlled style, and sometimes sheer comedy. Usually they were built around simple episodes from everyday life, which revealed the hidden sides of people. Maupassant has been accused of misogynism, but his portrayal of prostitutes was sympathetic. According to Maupassant, a modern novel aims not at "telling a story or entertaining us or touching our hearts but at forcing us to think and understand the deeper, hidden meaning of events".
On several occasions the tales were narrated in the first person or were told by a named character. In 'The Jewels of M. Lantin' the chief clerk of the Minister of the Interior marries the daughter of a provincial tax collector. He is unbelievably happy. She has only two small vices - her love of the theater and her passion for artificial jewels. One wintry evening she comes from the opera shivering with cold and a week later she dies. Lantin is haunted by his memories, and plunges into poverty. He takes her necklace to a jeweler who tells that it is very valuable. Lantin has believed that his wife's jewelry were fakes because she could not have purchased valuable items. He realizes that they were gifts and the truth makes him weep bitterly. "As he walked along, Lantin said to himself, "How easy it is to be happy when you're rich! With money you can even shake off your sorrows; you can go or stay as you please! You can travel and amuse yourself." He sells her jewelry, resigns from his work, and enjoys the theater for the first time in his life. "Six months later he married. His second wife was a most worthy woman, but rather difficult. She made his life unbearable."
Maupassant's first novel was UNE VIE (A Woman's Life, 1883), a naturalistic story about the life of a Norman woman, Jeanne de Lamare, whose kindliness is her strength but also a vice. "And now she was leaving the convent, radiant, full of youthful sap and hunger for happiness, primed for all the joyful experiences, all the charming occurrences, that she had already mentally rehearsed in solitary anticipation throughout her idle daylight moments and the long hours of night." The episodic novel BEL-AMI (1885) depicted an unscrupulous journalist, Georges Duroy, whose success is build on hypocrisy, decadence, and corruption of the society. Maupassant named his little sailing yacht after the book.
PIERRE ET JEAN (1888) was a psychological study of adultery of a young wife and two brothers. The novel was thought to be immoral - infidelity is not actually condemned. In Luis Buñuel's screen adaptation of the novel from 1951, which the director later called his worst film, the emphasis is on the woman's experience. Buñuel made also other changes: the story is transported to modern Mexico. The ending is, ambiguously, a happy one.
Maupassant's most upsetting horror story, 'Le Horla' (1887), was about madness and suicide. The nameless protagonist is perhaps a syphilitic. In the beginning the narrator, a prosperous young Norman gentleman, sees a Brazilian three-master boat flow by his house. He salutes it and the gesture evidently summons the Horla, and invisible being. The Horlas are cousins of the vampires and their advent means the end of the reign of man. Our narrator eventually sets fire to his own house, to destroy his Horla, but only his servants die in the fire. He realizes that the Horla is still alive and decides to kill himself.
Maupassant had contracted syphilis in his 20s and the disease later caused increasing mental disorder. Also Maupassat's sight had troubled him at intervals, he suffered from severe headaches and used narcotics. Critics have charted the author's developing illness through his semi-autobiographical stories of abnormal psychology, but the theme of mental disorder is present in his first collection, LA MAISON TELLIER (1881), published at the height of his health. 'A Night in Paris' is a paranoid nightmare: its narrator feels compelled to walk the streets. In 'Who Knows?' the narrator sufferers from delusions about the furniture of his house, and in 'A Madman' a judge commits murder, just for the experience, and condemns an innocent man to death for the crime.
Maupassant's horror fiction consists of some 39 stories, only a tenth of his total. The nightmarish stories have much in common with Edgar Allan Poe's supernatural visions. Recurring theme is madness.'The Inn' has much similarities with Stephen King's famous novel The Shining. Maupassant describes two caretakers, living in the French Alps in a remote inn, which is surrounded by snow six months and unreachable. When the older caretaker goes missing, the younger in his loneliness loses his reason. 'The Hand' is about a severed, living human hand which. Despite it is chained up, it escapes and strangles its owner. The story has inspired several writers and movie directors, such as Robert Florey, Henry Cass, and Oliver Stone. Maupassant's other supernatural stories include 'The Englishman', 'The Apparation / The Spectre / The Ghost / The Story of a Law Suit', 'Was It a Dream', and 'Who Knows'.
"Monsieur de Maupassant est certainement un des plus francs conteurs de ce pays oú l'on fit tant de contes, et de si bons. Sa langue, forte, simple, naturelle, a un goût de terroir qui nous la fait aimer chèrement. Il possède les trois qualités de l'écrivain français: d'abord la clarté, puis encore la clarté, et enfin la clarté. Il a l'esprit de mesure et d'ordre qui est celui de notre race." (Anatole France, la Vie littéraire, tome Ier, 1888)
NOTRE COEUR (1890), a psychological love story, was Maupassant's last completed novel. On January 2, in 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat. He was committed to the celebrated private asylum of Dr. Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris, where he died next year. Maupassant's style has been imitated by countless writers and his influence can be seen on such masters of the short story as Anton Chekhov, W. Somerset Maugham and O. Henry. A number of films have been based on Maupassant's stories, such as Jean Renoir's masterpiece Une partie de campagne (1936), Boule de Suif by Christian-Jacque's (1945), and Max Ophüls's Le plaisir 1952). Other movie adaptations: La père Milon, 1908; Le Collier, 1909; La Petite Roque, 1910; Yvette, 1916; L'Ordonnance, 1921; Ce cochon de Morin, 1923; Le Rosier de Mme Husson, 1932, dir. by Bernard Deschamps; L'Ordonnance, 1933, dir. by Victor Tourjansky; 1936; Lumière dans la nuit, 1943, dir. by Helmut Kautner; Mademoiselle Fifi, 1944, dir. by Robert Wise; Deux Amis, 1949, dir. by Dimitri Kirsanoff; Le Rosier de Mme Husson, 1950, dir. by Jean Boyer; The Knife Thrower, 1951, Maxwell Weinberg; Trois Femmes, 1951, dir. by André Michel; Mari et femme, 1952, dir. by Edouardo de Filippo; Ça commence par un péche (Am anfang war er Sünde), 1954, dir. by Franz Cap; The True and the False, 1955, dir. Michaël Road; La Chevelure, 1961, dir. by Ado Kyrou; Il lavoro (episode in Boccaccio 79), 1962, Luchino Visconti; L'Étrange Histoire du juge Cordier, 1962, dir. by Réginald Le Borg; Le Dernier Matin de Guy de Maupassant, 1963, dir. by Maurice Fasquelle; L'Héritage, 1963, dir. by Ricardo Alvertosa; Masculin Féminin, 1965, dir. by Jean-Luc Godard; Rosalie, 1966, dir. by Walerian Borowczyk
For further reading: La vie et l'œuvre de Guy de Maupassant by Edouard Maynial (1906); Souvenirs sur Maupassant by A. Lumbroso (1905); Souvenirs sur Maupassant by F. Tassart (1911); Guy de Maupassant by René Dumesnil (1933); Maupassant: a Lion in the Path by Francis Steegmüller (1941); L'art de Maupassant d'aprés ses variantes by Jean Thorval (1950); Guy de Maupassant et l'art du roman by A. Vial (1954); Maupassant the Novelist by Edward D. Sullivan (1954); Nouveaux Souvenirs intimes sur Maupassant by F. Tassart and P. Cogny (1962); Illusion and Reality by John L. Ducan (1973); Guy de Maupassant by Leo Tolstoy (1974); Woman's Revenge: The Chronology of Dispossession in Maupassant's Fiction by Mary Donaldson-Evans (1986); Maupassant: The Semiotics of Text by Paul Perron (1988); Love and Nature, Unity and Doubling in the Novels of Maupassant, ed. by Bertrand Logan Ball, Helen Roulston (1989), Struggling Under the Destructive Glance: Androgyny in the Novels of Guy de Maupassant by Rachel M. Hartig (1991); Maupassant and the American Short Story by Richard Fusco (1994); The Art of Rupture by Charles J. Stivale (1994); St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, ed. by David Pringle (1998, see entry by Chris Morgan); Guy de Maupassant by Michael Bettencourt (1999); Maupassant's Fiction And The Darwinian View Of Life by Laurence A. Gregorio (2005) - See also: Axel Munthe - Suomeksi on julkaistu mm. novellivalikoimat Hätähuuto y.m. kertomuksia, Valittuja novelleja 1-2, (suom. Kasimir Leino), Maupassantin parhaat, Suuret kertomukset, Huviretki maalle ja muita kertomuksia.
Selected works:
HISTOIRE DU VIEUX TEMPS, 1879
DES VERS, 1880
BOULE DE SUIF, 1880 - Ball of Fat (translated and edited by Ernest Boyd, in The Collected Novels and Tales of Guy de Maupassant, 1922-1926) - Rasvahelmi (suom. Reino Hakamies, 1945) - films: The Woman Disputed, 1928, dir. Henry King, Sam Taylor, starring Norma Talmadge Pyshka, 1934, dir. by Mihail Romm, starring Galina Sergeyeva; Maria no Oyuki, 1935, dir. by Kenji Mizokuchi; Stagecoach (loosely adapted from the story), 1939, dir. by John Ford; 1945, dir. by Christian-Jacque, starring Micheline Presle Hua gu niang, 1951, dir. Shilin Zhu, starring Li Hua Li
LA MAISON DE TELLIER, 1881 - Madame Tellier's Establishment (tr. Roger Colet, in Selected Short Stories, 1973) / The Tellier House (translated by Desmond Flower) / The House of Madame Tellier and Other Stories (translated by Marjorie Laurie) - Tellierin talo (suom.) - films: 1981, dir. Pierre Chevalier, starring Arlette Didier, Olivier Mathot, Françoise Blanchard, Michel Tugot-Doris, Antonio Mayans; TV film 2008, prod. M.F.P. (France), dir. Élisabeth Rappeneau
CONTES DE LA BÉCASSE, 1883
MADEMOISELLE FIFI, 1883 - Mademoiselle Fifi and Other Stories (tr. Roger Colet, 1993) - Neiti Fifi ja muita novelleja (suom. Elina Hytönen ja Katri Ingman) - films: Doch isterzannoy Pol'shi, 1915, dir. Aleksandr Chargonin; 1944, prod. RKO Radio Pictures, dir. Robert Wise (based on Mademoiselle Fifi and Boule de Suif), starring Simone Simon, John Emery, Kurt Kreuger, Alan Napier
UNE VIE, 1883 - Une vie; or, The history of the Heart (in The Life Work of Henri René Guy de Maupassant, Volume 9) / A Woman's Life (translated by Marjorie Laurie, 1942) / A Life: The Humble Truth (tr. Roger Pearson, 1999) - Elämän tarina (suomennos: Martti Wuori, 1918) / Naiskohtalo (suom. Arvi Linnus) - films: Onna no isshô, 1928, dir. Yoshinobu Ikeda; Räkna de lyckliga stunderna blott, 1944, dir. Rune Carlsten; Naiskohtaloita, 1947, dir. by Toivo Särkkä, starring Rauli Tuomi, Eeva-Kaarina Volanen, Rauha Rentola, Doris Hovimaa; Ta de yi sheng, 1958, prod. Kong Ngee (Hong Kong), dir. Sun-fung Lee 1958, dir. by Astruc, starring Maria Schell, Christian Marquand, Pascale Petit Yeojaui ilsaeng, 1968, prod. Shin Films (South Korea), dir. Sang-ok Shin TV film 2005, dir. Élisabeth Rappeneau, starring Barbara Schulz, Boris Terral, Catherine Jacob, Wladimir Yordanoff, Marie Denarnaud
MISS HARRIET, 1884 - Miss Harriet (transl.) - Miss Harriet (suom. Timo Tuura, 1909)
AU SOLEIL, 1884 - Au soleil; or, African Wanderings (in Selection from the Writings of Guy de Maupassant, Volume 4)
YVETTE, 1884 - Yvette, a Novellette, and Ten Other Stories (tr. Mrs. John Galsworthy, 1916) - films: 1927, prod. Néo-Film (France), dir. by Alberto Cavalcanti; Die Tochter einer Kurtisane, 1938, prod. Meteor-Film GmbH (Germany), dir. by Wolfgang Liebeneiner; TV film 1971, dir. Jean-Pierre Marchand, starring France Dougnac
LES SŒURS RONDOLI, 1884 - The Rondoli Sisters (transl.)
MONSIEUR PARENT, 1884 - Monsieur Parent, and Short Stories (tr. 1910)
TOINE, 1895 - Toine (transl.)
BEL-AMI, 1885 - Bel ami; or, The History of a Scoundrel (in The Life Work of Henri René Guy de Maupassant, Volume 13) / Bel-Ami (translators: Ernest Boyd; Margaret Mauldon; Douglas Parmeé) - Kaunis ystävä (suom. Arvi Nuormaa, 1926) / Bel-Ami (suom. Arvi Nuormaa) - films: 1919, dir. Augusto Genina; 1937, dir. by Willi Forst, starring Willi Forst, Olga Tschechowa, Johannes Riemann; 1947, prod. Filmex (Mexico), dir. Antonio Momplet; The Private Affairs of Bel-Ami, 1947, dir. by Albert Lewin, starring George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Ann Dvorak, John Carradine; 1954, dir. by Louis Daquin, starring Johannes Heesters, Gretl Schörg, Marianne Schönauer; TV film 1968, prod. Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR), dir. by Helmut Käutner; TV film 1971, dir. John Davies; 1976, prod. Cinématographique Universal (Sweden), dir. Mac Ahlberg; Milácek, TV film 2002, dir. Dusan Klein; TV film 2005, prod. Studio International, dir. Philippe Triboit
CONTES DU JOUR ET DE LA NUIT, 1885 (contains 'La Parure' or 'The Necklace') - films: The Necklace, 1909, dir. D.W. Griffith, starring Rose King, Herbert Prior, Caroline Harris, Mary Pickford; The Diamond Necklace, 1921, dir. Denison Clift; Yichuan zhenzhu, 1926, dir. Zeyuan Li; Stimulantia, 1969, dir. Hans Abramson, Hans Alfredson
LA PETITE ROQUE, 1886 - Little Roque, and Other Stories (tr. Storm Jameson)
CONTES ET NOUVELLES, 1886
LE HORLA, 1887 - The Horla (translated by Charlotte Mandell; Roger Colet, in Selected Short Stories, 1971) / Hallucination - Painajaisuni (suom. Eila Kostamo, 1966) - films: short film 1966, dir. Jean-Daniel Pollet; El Horla, short film 1969, dir. Antonio Castro; Diário de um Território Ocupado, short film 1993, dir. Caio Amado; animation 1993, narrated by Jean-Claude Donda; Hantises, 1997, prod. Caro-Line Production (France), dir. Michel Ferry
MONT-ORIOL, 1887 - Mont-Oriolin kylpylä (suom. Arvi Nuormaa, 1929)
SUR L'EAU, 1888 - Sur l’eau, The Magic Couch, and Other Stories (translated by Albert M. C. McMaster, B. A., A. E. Henderson, B. A., Mme. Quesada et al., 1923) / Afloat (translated by Marlo Johnston; Douglas Parme)
PIERRE ET JEAN, 1888 - The Two Brothers (tr. Clara Bell, 1890) / Pierre and Jean (translated by Hugh Craig, 1890; Clara Bell, 1902; Lowell Bair, 1994) - Veljekset (suom. F. A. C., 1890; Rakel Kansanen, 1919) - films: 1924, dir. by Donatien; 1943, dir. by André Cayatte, starring Gilbert Gil, Bernard Lancret; Une mujer sin amor, 1951, dir. by Luis Buñuel, starring Rosario Granados, Tito Junco, Julio Villarreal, Joaquín Cordero; Die Brüder, TV film 1958, prod. NWRV (West Germany), dir. Egon Monk; TV film 1973, dir. Michel Favart
LE ROSIER DE MADAME HUSSON, 1888 - Madame Husson's May King / Madame Husson's Rosier (by Albert McNaster, A.E. Henderson, Madame Quesada et al., in Complete Short Stories) - films: 1932, dir. Bernard-Deschamps, starring Fernandel, Françoise Rosay; 1950, dir. Jean Boyer, starring Bourvil, Albert Duvaleix, Christian Lude, Henri Vilbert, Germaine Dermoz; Albert Herring, TV film 1985, prod. Glyndebourne Festival Opera, based on Benjamin Britten's chamber opera, dir. Peter Hall, libretto Eric Crozier
FORT COMME LA MORT, 1889 - Strong as Death (tr. Albert M. C. McMaster)
LA MAIN GAUCHE, 1889
NOTRE COEUR, 1890 - Notre cœur = The Human Heart (translated by Alexina Loranger Donovan, 1890) / Notre coeur; or, A Woman's Pastime (in The Life Work of Henri René Guy de Maupassant, Volume 5) / Alien Hearts (tr. by Richard Howard) - Ihmissydän (suom. Arvi Nuormaa, 1949)
L'INUTILE BEAUTÉ, 1890
QUI SAIT?, 1890 - Who Knows? (Maupassant's last story)
LA VIE ERRANTE, 1890 - La Vie Errante, Allouma, Toine and Other Stories (tr. Albert M.C. McMaster, A.E. Henderson, Mme. Quesada and Others, 1911)
MUSOTTE, 1891 - Musotte or A Critical Situation (tr. in Complete Works, Volume XIV) - film 1920, prod. Tespi Film (Italy), dir. Mario Corsi
LA PAIX DU MÉNAGRE, 1893 - A Paix Du Menage or A Comedy of Marriage (tr. in Complete Works, Volume XIV)
The Complete Short Stories, 1903 (trans. anon.)
Yvette - A Novellette, and Other Stories, 1904 (tr. Mrs. John Galsworthy)
ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES, 1907-10 (29 vols.)
The Miromesnil Edition of Guy de Maupassant, 1910 (8 vols., tr. A.E. Henderson, Madame Louise Quesada et al.)
The Second Odd Number: Thirteen Tales by Guy de Maupassant, 1917 (tr. Charles Henry White and Virginia Watson)
The Collected Novels and Tales of Guy de Maupassant, 1922-1926 (18 vols., tr. by Ernest Augustus Boyd and Storm Jameson, reprinted 1928)
The Works of Guy de Maupassant, 1923-1929 (10 vols., tr. Marjorie Laurie)
ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES ILLUSTRÉES, 1934 (15 vols.)
CHRONIQUES, ÉTUDES, CORRESPONDANCE DE GUY DE MAUPASSANT, 1940
LETTRES INÉDITES À GUTAVE FLAUBERT , 1941
CORRESPONDANCE INÉDITE, 1951
The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, 1955 (ed. by Artine Artinian)
Stories of Mystery and Terror, 1963 - Yön tarinat (tr. Janne Staffans, 1989)
CONTES DU SURNATUREL, 1967 - Tales of Supernatural Terror (ed. by Arnold Kellett)
Selected Short Stories, 1971 (tr. Roger Colet)
The Diary of a Madman, 1976 (ed. by Arnold Kellett)
A Night on the River and Other Strange Tales, 1976
CONTES FANTASTIQUES COMPLETS, 1984 (ed. by Anne Richter)
The Dark Side: Tales of Terror and Supernatural, 1989 (ed. by Arnold Kellett)
Mademoiselle Fifi and Other Stories, 1993 (tr. Roger Colet)
A Parisian Bourgeois' Sunday and Other Stories, 1997 (tr. Marlo Johnston)
The Necklace and Other Tales, 2003 (contains The Necklace, Butterball, The Tellier House, On the Water, Mademoiselle Fifi, The Mask, The Inn, A Day in the Country, The Hand, The Jewels, The Model, The Entity=The Horla; tr. by Joachim Neugroschel)
