Book Description
New edition features 7 of the most popular tales of one of the greatest of all short-story writers. Included are "La Parure," "Mademoiselle Fifi," "La Maison Tellier," "La Ficelle," "Miss Harriet," "Boule de Suif" and "Le Horla," all reflecting Maupassant's intimate familiarity with Paris and the universality of his creations.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting...but kind of violent........2007-05-07
I bought this book so that I had a french book to read to my baby girl...so I love it for that, it is in french and the translations are right there. The subject matter however, is disturbing about fighting and wars seemed very violent to me. If there is a happier dual language book anybody recommends please post about it!!
Top Notch.......2007-02-27
Normally I'm not the greatest fan of short story collections. They tend to be a very mixed bag, some better work being thrown in with mediocre or experimental stuff, or simply stories which the author started then abandoned or just lacked interest in. It must have been for these reasons that I've steered clear of De Maupassant, despite his reputation.
Yet, this is a very fine collection of top-quality stories: its title is "the best", so one shouldn't be too surprised, but given my previous experiences, this was a real pleasure. The stories are tightly controlled, well-paced, and despite their varying length, just right to keep your interest.
I was surprised at how unsparing De Maupassant was - that's to say, he rarely bales out by giving an improbable ending. This author is highly critical of the foibles of human beings, viewing the human experience as an essentially hazardous one, in which justice is rarely done. One could see him as a pessimistic or cynical author, yet that's not really the case - there are stories of bravery, love and humour in this collection.
A delight.
G Rodgers
je suis tres heureux.......2007-01-17
great, becoming rusty, good refresher by master os french prose. much in thanks merci, peter
a different word for everything.......2005-10-18
Anyone who's tried to learn a foreign language knows that the early stages involve a lot of frustration. It helps to practice speaking as much as possible, but conversation without a good vocabulary can be really tedious. That's why dual-language books are such a valuable resource. They allow the reader to learn lots of new words without memorizing lists or flipping through dictionaries.
Dual-language books are even better when they happen to be great literature, as is clearly the case with Guy De Maupassant's short stories. Despite being written in the 19th century, the collection will be of interest to 21st century readers. In fact the last story in this collection (The Horla) reads like a modern-day ghost story.
The only downside is that the text often makes use of a literary verb tense that may be confusing to beginning students of grammar. But this is a problem with all written French, and shouldn't dissuade the motivated student. This book, along with the dual-language version of Voltaire's Candide, is definitely recommended for the intermediate-level student of French.
Proper........2002-12-07
As a language teacher and researcher, I've come to the conclusion that the single best way to learn a foreign language's vocabulary is through these sorts of dual-language texts. The reasons are many, but the ideal to which all second language learners strive is to simply relate new information to old - to learn a new word for a known concept.
This book succeeds in that department brilliantly. The translation is wonderful, without being too literal, and without being too prosaic. It captures the essence of the works without sacrificing artistic integrity... and is simply lovely.
If you're learning French, buy this.
If you're learning English, buy this.
Book Description
'Monsieur de Maupassant has never before been so clever.' Henry James Henry James's admiration for 'this masterly little novel' has been echoed throughout the twentieth century by readers of Pierre et Jean. It marked a turning-point in the development of French fiction, situated as it is between traditional social realism and the psychological novel. It is recognized as a classic study of filial jealousy, triggered by one of the two brothers of its title finding himself the sole inheritor of the fortune of his mother's former lover. Pierre et Jean is set in Le Havre in the 1880s and is notable for its evocation of the Normandy coastline captured by the Impressionists. But Maupassant's achievement is to have woven from this simple plot in a maritime context a brilliantly crafted exploration of the complexities at the heart of family life.
Customer Reviews:
A Classic Short Story.......2007-05-29
This has to be one of the nicest novella's I have ever had the pleasure of perusing. I guess one should expect nothing less from this Maupassant masterpiece. After all, Maupassant (along with Chekov) is considered one of the founding fathers of the modern day short story, and this is considered to be his greatest work. There is more to this book than the old Cain and Abel story of sibling rivalry. It's also a telling tale of filial love, forgiveness, and the steadfast, unconditional love of a mother. It's very powerfully told with all the passion and emotion one would expect from a disciple of Flaubert and a friend of both Zola & Turgenev.
I will definitely be placing this work on my top shelf of favorites. It is one of those rare stories that will leave you thinking about it long after you turn the last page. Maupassant created a character in Pierre that is so sublimely human, such a complex, abstruse, big ball of paradox. At times, it is easy to despise him and at other times you can't help but identify with, and feel compassion for the man. After all, how heartless can one be not to sympathize with a man who has gone his whole entire life playing second fiddle to his more attractive, amicable, and younger brother Jean. Jean gets the girl, he gets the inheritance, gets the luxury flat Pierre originally had his sights on, and most importantly perhaps (because this has been going on since childhood) Jean is his parent's favorite. Come now, it's so easy to pass judgment on this man, but who among us wouldn't be experiencing the same inner torment that plagues Pierre?
"There was within him some little place that hurt, one of those almost imperceptible bruises that cannot be located, yet fidget, tire, depress and irritate you, an unidentifiable, trifling pain, a sort of seed of unhappiness."
I highly recommend this one!
Great edition.......2006-04-28
I haven't seen any other edition of this novella, but this one is very good in analysis. It is a pleasure to read the footnotes while reading the book, as if you are listening to a discussion in a French literature class.
doubtful paternity.......2004-07-18
This is a short novel, easy to follow, and enjoyable to read.
Here's what it's about basically. There's these two brothers, right?--as the title indicates. One of them gets a really nice inheritance from a family friend. The other brother gets NOTHING. He's jealous of his brother for his good fortune, and gets suspicious about WHY his brother got the inheritance. He finds out that it's because their mother had an affair with the family friend and his brother was born illegitimately from the affair. He confronts his mother about it and she admits it. That's why his brother got the inheritance, because he was the family friend's true son, it was a shameful secret that the mother kept from her husband (their father). That's all there is to it. It's not a complex book and the story's pretty simple, but the underlying psychology is really interesting and the book is very well-written--very tight and engaging. Maupassant's best novel, I would say.
David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness.
A STUDY OF FAMILY RELATIONS.......2003-03-13
WHAT CAN BE EXPECTED TO HAPPEN IN A FAMILY WHEN ONE OF ITS MEMBERS INHERITS A LARGE SUM OF MONEY? EVERYBODY IS HAPPIER AND BETTER OFF, RIGHT? WRONG! AS WE SEE FROM THIS STORY, THE WHOLE FABRIC OF THE FAMILY CAN BECOME TORN. YET, BY EMPLOYING SOME SUBTLE TACTICS, MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY CAN FIND A WAY TO STAY TOGETHER. AT A BIG PRICE THOUGH, BECAUSE ONE OF THE MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY HAS TO HOLD HIMSELF ALOOF IN ORDER TO PRESERVE FAMILY BOUNDS. A VERY DELICATE STUDY OF THE SUBJECT!
Sibling Rivalry.......2002-11-05
This short novel just blew me away with intense and detailed characterzations and a plot that builds tension based on the interaction between the members of a family that is nearly rocked by a seemingly positive development. The two grown brothers are established as near opposites in almost every detail and when one inherits money from an old family acquaintance the reason behind their differences becomes the driving force of the story and it's revelation nearly rips the family apart.
A short novel that will stay with you for some time after reading it.
Customer Reviews:
One of the True Masters of Short Fiction.......2007-03-11
Guy De Maupassant's short stories are peopled with characters that the reader feels an almost immediate connection to. He is a master of characterization and pacing which is so critical to the writing of short fiction. This collection is an excellent introduction to his work with some of the stories standing out more than others although all are worth the time investment requred to digest a story that will typically inspire the reader with thought and reflection.
I don't know if I would agree with other reviewers that he is the best since others, most notably, Chekov have also produced masterpieces of short fiction. Nevertheless the reader's life will be enriched by becoming familiar with de Maupassant and this collection is a fine way to start.
The best short stories.......2005-12-23
I fell across Maupassant's "The Necklace" years ago and have been a fan ever since. Many writers believe that the well crafted short story is the hardest story to write and Maupassant is certainly one of the masters. Many of his stories are well known: "The Necklace," "The Piece of String," and "The Ball of Fat" are standard university faire but this volume brings together about thirty of his best stories. His keen insight and sense of observation make these stories timeless and interesting - you might even see yourself. The writing is surprisingly fresh and readable. A great book to have by the fireside.
Unequalled World-Class Short Story Writer.......2004-11-03
Never having taken a world literature class, I discovered Guy De Maupassant many years ago on my own ... to my utter delight! I love his insights into human behavior, his writing technique of emphasizing some human conditon, dilemma, or foible, his ability to contrast the behavior of the wealthy respectable class against the more common people, his humor, and his creative writing style. The reader learns about the lives of people during the 19th century, their cares, concerns, their vices and passions ... and their secrets, the subjects are as varied as life itself!
This volume of 30 short stories is an extremely fine selection of his works. I was familiar with three of the stories, "The Jewels", "The Piece of String" and the most well known titled "Boule De Suif" (translated as "Ball of Fat"). In this famous story, the prostitute of the region of Rouen is traveling with upper class companions in a coach as each traveler assesses the other one, making judgements as human beings often do. Eventually the upper class passengers are hungry, as they eye Boule De Suif opening her basket filled with fried chicken and other delicious foods. Boule De Souif takes compassion on her fellow passengers by offering them some of her food, to their embarrassment and pleasure, assuaging their hunger pangs. We learn a little about the character and background of the passengers, as the author builds his plot ... The passengers became more chummy, a most unusual situation that would not occur in normal everyday life between such different classes. The coach stopped for a rest at an inn. Prussians occupied the town and were staying at the same inn. As circumstances developed, the Prussian officer wanted to speak with Boule De Suif (Madame Elisabeth Rousset) ... she refused, recognizing at once the reason for his summons. The passengers on the coach sensed the tension and attempted pursuading Ms Rousset to join the officer ... they feared bad consequences for themselves if she did not cooperate, despite their disgust toward that sort of activity. They prevalied, Ms Rousset succumbed. The story ended on a sad note ... after "the event", the snobby behavior of the passengers toward Ms Rousset was evident as they reached their destination. They forgot her kindess in sharing her food, her resistance to the advances of the officer (she had pride in resisting the enemy) ... the passengers looked to their own selfish concerns and had no compassion for the sacrifice made by "Boule De Suif" on their behalf. This story exemplifies one of the main reasons the stories of Guy De Maupassant are so popular, in addition to his creative techniques and writing expertise, he contrasts certain extremes of human behavior to make a very strong point which emphasizes the human condition most accurately. These stories will delight a wide-range of readers. Most highly recommended. Erika Borsos (erikab93)
the undisputed master of the short fiction form.......2004-03-19
Guy de Maupassant is today considered by most literary historians to be the greatest short story writer who ever lived, in any century. When it comes to just telling a great story, he was the best, couldn't be topped. Both aspiring and established fiction writers should read Maupassant's finest stories to learn or brush up on the basics--plot, pacing, conciseness, character, mood, description, as well as to learn how simple naturalness and clarity of technique are important for writing engaging and readable fiction.
This is a very good selection of some of his most memorable tales. I would also recommend "A Day In The Country and Other Stories", which I believe is the best Maupassant collection available in English.
Maupassant was considered shocking a hundred years ago because he wrote about prostitutes and adultery in frank and unashamed terms. He was ahead of his time in that way. He never wrote a truly great novel, but 50 or 60 of his stories are real classics. Nobody who reads a great Maupassant story will soon forget it.
David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"
Simply Guy.......2002-10-19
Guy de Maupassant is one of those few authors you just love to hate. Maybe it has to do with the fact that he's French, but that's another thing entirely. He's known for his fabulous short stories that can take you from feelings of sadness to joy to downright disgust. His collections of short stories incorporated here see to do exactly that.
Maupassant is one of those authors whose stories take some time to warm up before running smoothly about. Like an old engine, you will feel some cranks here and there, but after some time, everything seems to move smoothly along. His short stories are astounding. He's known for his thought provoking outlook on the french and european culture of his time. You can at times relate to his surroundings with the wars, famine, and greed that surrounds them, an environment that resembles very much modern times. Maupassant's best work has got to be the novella Le Horla, which is not included here. His other short stories just run short from comparing to that one, but that doesn't mean they're bad nonetheless. His writing style is different than other French authors, like Dumas, who favored patriotism above all else and looked at riches before dealing with the peasants. Maupassant look at the latter and how they relate to the former. That realistic approach just shows you that in any age or life we're living in, the rich will always have it for the poor, that life is not fair and if you don't stand up for your right, things not might, but will never go your way.
In his short collection, you capture a glimpse of a literary genius, whose light faded before his time. You feel the anguish of his troubled times, and can't help but wondering that even after centuries, history still keeps repeating itself.
Average customer rating:
- Criminal Mistranslation of "Boule de suif" and Bowdlerization of "La Maison Tellier"
- Flaubert's disciple influenced Chekhov's flair for irony.
- This book is a dreat value
- Paste makes waste
- This Guy isn't angry!
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The Necklace and Other Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)
Guy de Maupassant
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
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ASIN: 0486270645 |
Book Description
Nine memorable classics, characterized by ironic twists of plot, include "Ball of Fat," regarded by many as technically one of the finest short stories ever written, "The Necklace," "A Piece of String," "Mme. Tellier's Establishment," "Mademoiselle Fifi," "Miss Harriet," "A Way to Wealth," "My Uncle Jules" and "The Horla."
Customer Reviews:
Criminal Mistranslation of "Boule de suif" and Bowdlerization of "La Maison Tellier".......2005-11-16
Boule de Suif is the story that made Maupassant famous, a story admired by his mentor Flaubert shortly before he died.
The translation in this volume has been in circulation since 1903. It is done by someone who does not know the French language at all and is full of astonishing howlers.
It is depressing to think that the English-speaking world has read this great story in such a dreadful translation for a century.
Some examples of the translator's incompetence:
"choqua" translated as "choked" (should be "shocked")
"grouillaient" translated as "grumbled" (should be "swarmed")
"interloque" translated as "interlocutor" (should be "struck dumb")
"glissaient" translated as "glistened" (should be "slipped)
"inattendue" translated as "unwitting" (should be "unexpected")
"entre deux couplets" translated as "between the two rows of people" (should be "between verses")
"grallait une pipe sur le siege" translated as "had a lighted pipe under the seat" (should be "smoked a pipe on the seat")
"Il sont verts" translated as "he is very green" (should be "sour grapes")
"par convenance" translated as "for convenience" (should be "out of propriety)
"defiant" translated as "defiant" (should be "mistrustful")
"propre" translated as "proper" (should be "clean")
"malpropre" translated as "improper" (should be "dirty")
"lapin" translated as "little wolf" (should be "rabbit")
"le faisant s'interesser a des choses qui, vraiment, ne le regardaient guere" translated as "making themselves interested in things that, in truth, they would never think of noticing" (should be "making God interested in things that, in truth, were no concern of his")
"ce ton... que les hommes poses emploient avec les filles" translated as "tone... after the manner of men having girls in their employ" (should be "the tone... that men of experience use with prostitutes")
The text is entirely denatured in this appalling anonymous translation, which should never have been distributed commercially.
"La Maison Tellier," another fine tale, is again sorely mistreated.
The two key scenes are an emotive First Communion ceremony at which the ladies distinguish themselves by their piety; as a pendant to this the story ends with another scene at their brothel that can only be described as an orgy.
In the present bowdlerized translation the two pages describing the Communion scene are omitted and it becomes a Confirmation ceremony instead, and the orgy becomes an innocent dance at which the ladies become a little tipsy!
Flaubert's disciple influenced Chekhov's flair for irony........2001-05-17
This ...Dover collection of short stories, written by arguably the best writer ever in the genre, traces the invention of modern short fiction. After Maupassant’s parents divorced, his mother became friends with Gustave Flaubert of the “Madame Bovary” fame. Flaubert committed himself to tutoring the young aristocrat – hence the “de” in his surname – and said of his protégé, “I love him like a son.” What an apprenticeship?
An artist owes much to his or her environment hence the background just volunteered reveals decisive influences that informed Guy’s craft. In turn, Maupassant’s work would influence those of Chekhov, Joyce, James, Babel and Hemingway! Chekhov’s oeuvre then influenced Katherine Mansfield and so on - an impressive literary family tree indeed!
Maupassant, who studied law, was a master of irony and the title story exemplifies that. “The Necklace” and “A Piece of String” (otherwise translated from French as “The String”) are much anthologized. Of the more than 360 short stories he wrote, the nine stories in this collection are well plotted and, like most of his followers, the author avoids imposing any moral judgments on his characters – not even on the prostitute in his sensational first story, “Ball-of-Fat” (“Boule de Suif”). ...- enjoy the dreams!
This book is a dreat value.......2001-03-23
I love the Dover Thrift Edition series. I originally bought Kafka's "The Metamorphasis and other Stories" and was delighted by the selction of a few fine representative works by that author. Again, for a shockingly low price, I decided to revisit a story I read many years ago and bought this volume. "The Necklace" is a great tale of irony in which the old adage "no good deed goes unpunished" is illustrated. It is a tale of honorably living up to one's resposibilities and it ends with quite a twist. This was a great read when I was very young and it still is well into my middle age. I recommend the "Thrift Editions," including this one, to quicky and inexpensively build a library of representative works of great writers.
Paste makes waste.......2000-10-01
I read this when I was 12. I liked it. I think they should have been honest about what happened, rather than trying to cover it up. That would have saved them from a lot of grief.(I wouldn't advertise to the world that I didn't "get it" if I were 35.)
This Guy isn't angry!.......1999-12-02
The title story is one of the most popular stories I teach! My college students love the irony used to raise questions about where we place our values. The surprise ending always provokes the most animated discussions. "Angry guy" probably doesn't "get it." Most people do, and I know you will love reading this story and the others in the collection!
Book Description
1903. Part One contains Volumes I-IV of X. French author of the naturalistic school, Maupassant is generally considered to be the greatest French short story writer of his day. The Complete Short Stories contains the 300 short stories Maupassant wrote during the 1880s, including his horror fiction, which consists of some 39 stories, only a tenth of his total. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. Other volumes in this set are ISBN(s): 1417936150.
Customer Reviews:
right guy, wrong edition.......2006-05-30
This review is in two parts: (1) praise of Maupassant's genius; (2) telling you which edition to buy (not this one).
It is annoying that Maupassant's name so often arises just in the history of the short story, as though his works might be mostly of interest as some kind of historical stepping stones along the way to greater geniuses. One even sees a hint of this in the book description above, where it has him "generally considered the greatest French short story writer of his day"---unwarrantably faint praise for arguably the greatest short story writer of all time, anywhere. In truth, Maupassant achieved a unique perfection in the art of the short story that has not been equalled since. Other masters---Chekhov, Saki, Roald Dahl, Henry James, Jack Vance, Philip K. Dick, Ambrose Bierce---are as good, but in entirely different ways.
Maupassant's standard of quality is not consistently high, and a good fraction of these stories are mediocre at best. It's not so low as Saki's, where a few gems outshine all the others combined, nor so high as Dahl's, where almost every tale is brilliant. But many, many, many of them are extremely good or better, and it's important to get the complete works since smaller anthologies invariably make lots of bad selection decisions in Maupassant's case; moreover there's no excuse not to get the complete works, for how often can one possess almost the entire genius of a great man in a single volume?
I'm partial to the humorous, the cynical, the dark, and my very favourites are: "The Old Man", "Walter Schnaffs' Adventure", "The Relic", "That Pig of a Morin", "The Devil", "A Madman", "The Sisters Rondoli", "The Noncommissioned Officer", "Old Amable", "The False Gems", "The Horla", "How He Got the Legion of Honor", "Of Doctor Heraclius Gloss". Almost as good are: "Ball of Fat", "A Bad Error", "Growing Old", "Making a Convert", "On Cats", "A Traveler's Notes", "The Umbrella", "Selfishness", "An Idyl", "A Vagabond", "A Sale", "The Revenge", "Our Friends the English". One could go on; yet another forty or so are almost as good as these.
Some might call Maupassant's writing immoral, but it's more as though he has his own rakish personal morality, unique and unconventional (especially by 19th century standards), whereby, for instance, the secret seduction of another man's wife is the greatest good. I mostly disagree with him, but this in no way detracts from the enjoyment of his tales; indeed, what is more tedious than a moralizing, holier-than-thou author? Maupassant's stories usually are short, and he has an amazing talent for telling a lot, covering much time and territory, with few words---not by writing in generalities, but by always giving just the right details. A precious, disturbing, few, written near the end of his short life as he was declining into insanity, are unlike anything you will find anywhere else.
So, which edition? This one, unfortunately, appears to be a reprint of the ubiquitous, error-filled 1903 first American edition of his "complete" works. This not only misses a few of Maupassant's stories, it somehow---shockingly---falsely includes under his name sixty-five stories not even written by him (source: the introduction to the edition I'm about to recommend). Fortunately, there is a beautiful, but more difficult to find, edition of his complete short stories, lovingly edited by a certain Artine Artinian, a Maupassant scholar. It's called "The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant", Hanover House, Garden City, New York, Copyright 1955 by Doubleday & Co. This is a high quality volume of 1339 pages of thin, tightly bound acid-free paper. Find a copy.
This Author Influenced the Modern Short Story.......2005-07-29
It is a shame that the only story most people have read of Maupassant's is the much anthologized "The Necklace." There are many other Maupassant stories that readers would likely find more original and memorable than this one. For a long while, it has been difficult to find a complete set of Maupassant's stories. I'm happy to see they are available again for readers to enjoy. As a very young adolescent in the late 1960s, I discovered the short stories of Guy de Maupassant. They were so frightening to me, so close to the bare bone of truth, that I hid his collection under my bed for fear I would be "found out" reading them. Two stories that stand out to me, which I have read many times throughout my life, are "Mother of Monsters" and "Bellflower." "Mother of Monsters" is about a poor woman who bound her abdomen with corsets during her pregnancies so as to create "monsters," which she then sold to side shows. It was how she made her living. The gruesome nature of the story notwithstanding, it is the metaphorical implication that most intrigues me. The story invites us to ask ourselves to what extent we endanger ourselves and our children for the sake of survival. How do we "contort" our children psychologically so that they (and we) will "succeed" or "fit in," and thus become financially successful. I'm sure I didn't understand all the implications of the story when I was young; but the story has grown in my mind all these years, and it has served as a warning. Bellflower is a tender and most terrible recollection of the life and death of Clochette (or Bellflower). At the beginning of the story, Maupassant writes:
"HOW STRANGE are those old recollections which haunt us without our being able to get rid of them! This one is so very old that I cannot understand how it has clung so vividly and tenaciously to my memory. Since then I have seen so many sinister things, either affecting or terrible, that I am astonished at not being able to pass a single day without the face of Mother Bellflower recurring to my mind's eye, just as I knew her formerly long, long ago, when I was ten or twelve years old."
The purpose of the story is to reveal the origin of Bellflower's limp:
"She limped, not like lame people generally do, but like a ship pitching. When she planted her great bony, vibrant body on her sound leg, she seemed to be preparing to mount some enormous wave, and then suddenly she dipped as if to disappear in an abyss and buried herself in the ground. Her walk reminded one of a ship in a storm, and her head, which was always covered with an enormous white cap, whose ribbons fluttered down her back, seemed to traverse the horizon from north to south and from south to north at each limp."
I won't spoil the story by revealing what happened to Bellflower in her youth, but I will stress that this is a hauntingly beautiful story.
I implore anyone interested in the short story form to take a look at Maupassant's work. Most of his stories are very short: we might call them "sudden fiction" today. This would be a great volume to keep beside your bed to read from at night. Many of the stories are also excellent for use in high school or college literature or creative writing courses.
Average customer rating:
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My Uncle Jules and Other Stories/Mon oncle Jules et autres contes: A Dual-Language Book
Guy de Maupassant
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
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ASIN: 0486457532 |
Book Description
Admired and emulated by writers from Chekhov and Lawrence to Pirandello and Dos Passos, Maupassant is the master of the short-story form. Twelve critically acclaimed stories represent all of the author's major recurrent subjects and themes, both comic and tragic. Introduction, new English translation, and notes by Stanley Appelbaum.
Book Description
'His rise testifies to the decline of a whole society.' Jean-Paul Sartre Maupassant's second novel, Bel-Ami (1885) is the story of a ruthlessly ambitious young man (Georges Duroy, christened 'Bel-Ami' by his female admirers) making it to the top in fin-de-siecle Paris. It is a novel about money, sex, and power, set against the background of the politics of the French colonization of North Africa. It explores the dynamics of an urban society uncomfortably close to our own and is a devastating satire of the sleaziness of contemporary journalism. Bel-Ami enjoys the status of an authentic record of the apotheosis of bourgeois capitalism under the Third Republic. But the creative tension between its analysis of modern behaviour and its identifiably late nineteenth-century fabric is one of the reasons why Bel-Ami remains one of the finest French novels of its time, as well as being recognized as Maupassant's greatest achievement as a novelist.
Customer Reviews:
A Window onto Third Republic France.......2007-09-30
Maupassant's classic novel provides insight into the politics and high society of France during the early Third Republic. Georges Duroy is the ultimate social climber, who manages to achieve wealth and power in a world that seems to reward scheming. But he is also representative of the "little man" who succeeded in France after 1870. His is a world pervaded by politics, dominated by the self-assured bourgeoisie, and focused on Paris as the center of French life.
Meanwhile, Maupassant depicts many of the important political and social trends of the day: the predominance of the haute bourgeoisie, corruption in politics, the too-cozy relationship between politicians and journalists, colonialism, secularization/anti-clericalism vs. religiosity or professed piety, antisemitism, relations between men and women marked by exploitation and hypocrisy.
Though the romantic scenes are a little ridiculous at times, "Bel-Ami" provides a terrific literary snapshot of a certain era in French history.
Talk about a Tomcat!!! Step aside Don Juan... .......2007-08-27
"Self-love for ever creeps out, like a snake, to sting anything which happens to stumble upon it." Lord Byron 1788-1824
This classic chronicles Georges Duroy's (the main protagonist of the novel) quick rise to power from a poor, lost, ex-soldier to one of the most successful men in all of Paris. Georges is a young man who has indeed been blessed. He's exceptionally handsome, smart, charismatic, resourceful, etc... however, like many men who have been spoiled by the gods, Georges is completely self-centered. It's all about him. He uses these gifts to exploit people, especially women, and without conscience, he manipulates his way to the top of his profession.
I have to honestly say that I have never despised a main male character in a novel more than I did Georges. He is such a lowly cad, a man who is completely amoral and sans ethics. While I was reading the novel I kept waiting for Georges to get his come-uppance. For truly no man can live a life so loathsome before Karma finally decides to pay him a visit. Maupassant's excellent writing style and the hopes that Georges would get his just do, were the two main reasons I kept turning the pages. I could imagine a feminist wanting to burn this book, because of the way the main protagonist deceives women. However, that being said, most of the female characters in the novel are almost just as bad as Georges. They all cheat on their spouses, are self-absorbed & consumed, and lack integrity.
Maupassant interpretation of the hypocritical world of the Paris privileged in the late 19th century is both vexatious and morose. I just can't believe that people could be so damn unprincipled! There wasn't anyone to really root for in this story, no one whom you could really build a connection toward. They were almost all repugnant, self-centered, immoral characters and in many ways the women were worse than the men. It's interesting to note, that Maupassant was good friends with Emile Zola. I can see quite a few similarities between this story and Zola's classic "Nana". Duroy, like Nana, comes from a poor, working class family and like the latter he is almost irresistible to any member of the opposite sex he sets his eyes upon. His sex appeal has no rivals and he is able to exploit these women one after another in order to rise among the Paris elite society. Duroy will go down in my book as the quintessential womanizer of classic literature.
I thoroughly enjoy the way Maupassant writes, but I must admit I had a very difficult time with this one when it was all said and done. Perhaps I was expecting something to happen that didn't. I will refrain from elaborating on that point, for fear it will relate too much about the novel. However, all that being stated, it's a story that does grab your interest and never seems to let go.
Full Range Of Emotions.......2005-09-18
Though I've only read the original, I highly recommend Bel-Ami! This book is a treat. I found it quite a fast read at 400 pages because I simply devoured it; the characters, in spite (or maybe because) of all their flaws and weaknesses, are so engaging you'll became so involved that you'll hardly be able to put it down. Maupassant has a way of conveying the moods of the book to the reader that you'll pant for more in the end.
Good story.......2005-09-10
The characters in this book are well developed and easy to believe in. The main character is unscupulous, but you still do not hate him. To see someone manipulate their way through Paris culture through women is entertaining and did not go where I expected. One of the better French novels I have read.
Bel-Ami.......2005-01-10
Georges Duroy is working as a railway clerk, earning a miserable 1,500 francs a year and 'not a sou more'. While debating between having two lunch meals before going hungry, or two dinner meals, he runs into an old friend, Forestier, who has gone from thin to healthy, poor to wealthy, and inquires as to how this could be. Forestier explains that any man can have any job, but he must have the drive and be 'pushing' enough about it:
'If someone mentioned the name of Cicero or Tiberius, would you know what they're talking about, roughly?
Roughly, yes.
Good, that's all anybody knows, except for a couple of dozen silly idiots who are quite incapable of doing anything about it. It's not difficult to appear bright. ...All men are stupid oafs and ignorant nincompoops.'
Forestier invites him along to a social gathering, urging him to be as witty and charming as possible. He notes that the young Duroy has a handsome way with the ladies, and encourages him to play on that advantage as much as possible. At first, the night is not a success, with Duroy merely drinking wine and becoming drunk, the conversation flitting from topic to topic, idea to idea, and he is left behind, unsure. But then the words turn to Algiers, a topic he is familiar with, and he begins to speak. Forestier pounces upon this, declaring that Duroy is writing an essay, and a rich older man, editor of La Vie francaise, a newspaper, commissions an article. Duroy's career in high society is born and his confidence grows, he flirts with women and dazzles older ladies with his charisma and good looks.
Duroy very, very quickly learns that the world he has entered is not as easy as all that. His first article is published, but the sequel is rejected day after day. His friend, Carpentier, wants little to do with him if all he is going to do is stammer and fail. People are curt and cold unless he excels, so excel he must. Slowly, he learns the tricks of the trade, all of the sordid little details of being a reporter. At first horrified to learn that most of the stories are made up, or embellished, or riddled with hidden advertisements, he soon puts aside that qualm, joining the ranks with an emphatic glee.
He tumbles into a romantic liaison with a married woman which, beginning well, soon sours. He finds himself spending far too much money, borrowing from friends and other newspaper staff, and lying and cheating. When his affair ends, instead of learning from this mistake and starting afresh, he plots ways to cuckold his boss' wife, twirling his moustache with satisfaction at this idea. This eventually succeeds, but it takes Carpentier's death to make it so. With his new marriage underway, Duroy - now styled Du Roy de Cantel - find himself over his head, his wife's ambition towards his career and ambivalence towards their amorous relations being something he is unprepared for. But, he succeeds in virtually all the areas he has defined as being of worth: His career, his marriage, his social liaisons. Within a very short space of time, Duroy has become a socialite of Paris.
Maupassant's writing is, for the most part, smooth and affective, although the actual word usage does not often venture into flowery passages or philosophical musings, but when it does, it is certainly worthy. An older character, walking home with Duroy one night, muses on death and time, on his life, on what it means to be alive and what it means once you are dead. While these diversions obviously cannot hold up to a full philosophical treatise, they are not supposed to, and are handled with enough grace and skill as to be thought provoking, honest, and valid. Similarly, when exercising his authorly muscles, Maupassant can write a might fine sentence. An examples of this is when describing a great fleet of ships: 'They were enormous, strange, deformed objects with excrescences and towers and rams plunging into the water as if trying to take root in the sea.' Or there is this particularly contemptuous account of an older woman's desire for him: 'Since she had hitherto been a completely honest woman, a virgin at heart, and as impervious to feeling as she was ignorant of sensuality, this prim woman, whose staid forties were like a wan autumn after a cold summer, had all at once been thrust into a sort of faded spring, full of tiny, sickly flowers and frost-bitten buds, a strange blossoming of adolescent love, a late-flowering love both passionate and naive, full of unexpected raptures, girlish squeals, embarrassing billing and cooing and outdated airs and graces that had never even been young.'
An interesting and not entirely agreeable decision of Maupassant's is to, very occasionally, slip into the thoughts of a periphery character. While, for almost the entirety of the narration, we are firmly lodged within the mind of Duroy, there are brief occasions, when the young man has done something to provoke a firm emotional reaction in another character, that we are able to spy, however briefly, on their desires, ideas and expectations. The problem with this is that it happens so rarely, every fifty pages or so, that the decision to include such an excursion seems quite odd. Whenever it happens, we are thrust outside the flow of the narrative, rejected from the world and mind of Duroy, to inhabit the alien considerations of a character who, by virtue of not being the main in such a character-driven novel, is hardly as interesting. However, these journeys are quite brief, a paragraph or two at most when they occur, and feel like more of a miss-step rather than a full blown mistake on the author's part.
The latter half of the novel sees Duroy becoming bitter at the failure of his success. That is, while he is promoted, inherits money, gains status and wealth, it never seems to be enough for him. He compares his own success to that of much wealthier, older men, and find that he often comes up trumps. This disgruntles him, and he is consumed with jealousy, which has the unfortunate effect of making him a less sympathetic character. But, as he becomes a little older and a little wiser, he mellows, understanding that patience and intelligence will gain him the status of the men he so envies, and that not everything can come to him at once. In a series of brilliant coup's, he manages to place himself in an incredible social position, admired and loved by all - except for the toes he stepped on to get there.
It is quite curious to note that, for such a meteoric rise, there is never a fall. Modern novels seem to require a fall from grace, so that the character can learn from his experiences and be happy with the life they have always had, not so with Bel-Ami. Duroy rises and rises and rises, and with it, he grows as a person and a character. Some rough edges are worn smooth, other insignificant aspects of his personality become jagged and sharp, if only for a moment, before rounding out as well. He becomes an admirable, intelligent, wealthy young Parisian socialite, accepting of his status and considerate to those around him. Once his goals are achieved, he is content, and without malice towards others. And, excepting the few women whose heart's he broke, he does not have any enemies or difficulties as such. No, he is an accomplished young man, successful in his own way, and satisfied with himself. We are allowed to observe his journey from peasant to success, and it is a wonderful, interesting and thought-provoking experience.
Book Description
Set in the nouveau riche Paris of society women, prostitutes, and playboys; in the Normandy countryside; and on the French Riviera where Maupassant had lived, the thirty-four short stories in this volume are among the most darkly humorous and brilliant in French literature. They focus on the complexity of close relationships: between lovers, as in the poignant fantasy “A Parisian Affair” or the touchingly ironical “The Jewels”; between siblings, as in “At Sea”; and between former partners, as in “Encounter.” They reveal two sides of human nature: its grace and generosity and also, as in “Boule de Suif,” its greed and hypocrisy. Piquant and varied, Maupassant's stories lay humanity bare with deft wit and devastating honesty.
Customer Reviews:
Literary vandalism. Buy the Roger Colet translation instead........2006-08-25
Reading this new edition is like visiting a museum that has just been looted. Astonishingly, several of the very best Maupassant stories (particularly "Madame Tellier's Establishment" and "Mouche") have been deleted and replaced with facile selections like "The Necklace," which was intentionally omitted from the 1973 Roger Colet translation because it was rightly deemed inferior and unrepresentative of the author. Inexplicably, and criminally, translator Sian Miles chooses the first (again inferior and greatly truncated) version of "The Horla" rather than the classic mood-swinging, diary-entry style of the famous final published version. Additionally, "The Christening" here is benign and slight compared to the harrowing story of the same title featured in the earliest Penguin Classics collection translated by H.N.P. Sloman (a very different group of stories, but as highly recommended as the Colet). What Miles has done in essence is anaesthetize the great short story writer (perhaps second only to D.H. Lawrence) and give us Maupassant Lite.
Worst of all is the sense of biographical revisionism and political correctness that pervades this collection. In her Introduction, Ms. Miles claims that previous Maupassant collections reveal him as "if not misogynistic, at least deeply cynical in his portrayal of women," and she has taken it upon herself to "redress that previous imbalance." Hard to believe Penguin let her get away with such nonsense. First of all, Maupassant was cynical about humankind: both men AND women. If anything, he largely pokes fun at men's egos and their consequent foibles in dealing with women, who mostly come across as more subtle and intuitive. Secondly, Miles's reading of Maupassant as a misogynist fails to account for the great female Maupassant heroines like Mouche, Madame Tellier, Boule de Suif, Mother Sauvage, and of course the tragic Jeanne from the novel "A Woman's Life (Un Vie)." In truth, Maupassant's greatest characters defy the kind of easy, simplistic categorization that Miles celebrates in describing "the stupid and brutal count in 'A Woman's Confession' or the insufferably chauvinistic doctor in 'Madame Husson's Rose King.'" Comments like these reduce Maupassant to a kind of 19th century Dr. Phil.
The difference in translations is also important to note. Take for example the closing passage of "Idyll":
Note how flat, clumsy and almost too contemporary Miles's translation is:
"'That's enough. I feel much better now. It's put new life in me.'
He got up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. As she replaced inside her dress the two living gourds of her bosom, she said, 'That was a great help, Monsieur. Thanks very much.'
Gratefully, he replied, 'My pleasure, Madame, I'll tell you. I've had no food for two days.'"
Now note how Colet carefully captures the flavor of the rustic dialogue. Also note the impact of his adding the paragraph break:
"'That's enough, I feel better now. That's put new life into me.'
He had stood up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
Pushing her breasts inside her dress, she said: 'That was a real good turn you did me, Monsieur. Thank you very much.'
And he replied gratefully: 'It's me as has to thank you, Madame. I hadn't had a thing to eat for two days.'"
The difference between "That was a great help" vs "That was a real good turn" and "My pleasure" vs "It's me as had to thank you" speaks for itself. This sort of thing is make-or-break when determining a quality translation.
Finally, Miles's Introduction fails to capture the loving and haunting quality that Roger Colet's does. Among other things, Colet's Introduction revisits the serious possibility that Flaubert may have been Maupassant's real father. The subject of illegitimacy is an important one in Maupassant's work (see the wonderful "Pierre and Jean"), but this fascinating and ambiguous connection is not even touched upon here. It is one of numerous egregious omissions and revisions that make this publication tantamount to literary vandalism.
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French Stories (Dual-Language)
Easy French Reader
Selected Fables (Dual-Language)
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Short Stories in French: New Penguin Parallel Text (New Penguin Parallel Texts)
