Original Short Stories — Volume 01
1934
Guy de Maupassant wrote nearly two hundred short stories in his brief career, and this volume gathers some of his most devastating. The collection opens with "Boule de Suif," the masterpiece that made his reputation: a courtesan's act of kindness during the Franco-Prussian War exposes the petty cruelty and hypocrisy of the respectable passengers who depend on her then cast her aside. But the range here stretches far beyond that famous tale. There is dark comedy in "The Farmer's Wife" and "A Normandy Joke," where peasant cunning and spousal rivalry become absurd theater. There is wartime absurdity in "Walter Schnaff's Adventure," where a fleeing soldier's cowardice is treated with more honesty than heroism. There is tragedy in "The Son," and something like grace in "Lasting Love." What unites these stories is Maupassant's surgical eye for what people hide: their vanities, their cowardices, their sudden cruelties. He writes prose so clean it seems effortless, but every sentence cuts. This is the French short story at its finest: precise, unsentimental, and unflinching.
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“But I no longer had a taste for anything, a wish for anything, a love for anybody, a desire for anything whatever, any ambition, or any hope.””
— Guy de Maupassant
“I entered literary life as a meteor, and I shall leave it like a thunderbolt."[As quoted in Pol Neveux's introduction, ]””
— Guy de Maupassant
“Some people are Freethinkers from sheer stupidity. My Uncle Sosthenes was one of these. Some people are often religious for the same reason.””
— Guy de Maupassant
“Is it not rather the touch of Love, of Love the Mysterious, who seeks constantly to unite two beings, who tries his strength the instant he has put a man and a woman face to face?””
— Guy de Maupassant
“Death need not be sad, it should be a matter of indifference.””
— Guy de Maupassant
“Then, one by one, they went away, for night was falling on the storm, wrapping in shadows the raging ocean and all the battling elements.””
— Guy de Maupassant
“Several sailors, sheltered behind the curved bottoms of their boats, were watching this battle of the sky and the sea.””
— Guy de Maupassant
“Ah! Those silly songs make us lose our heads; and, believe me, never marry a woman who sings in the country, especially if she sings the song of Musette!””
— Guy de Maupassant
“Monsieur, beware of love! It is lying in ambush everywhere; it is watching for you at every corner; all its snares are laid, all its weapons are sharpened, all its guiles are prepared! Beware of love! Beware of love! It is more dangerous than brandy, bronchitis or pleurisy! It never forgives and makes everybody commit irreparable follies.””
— Guy de Maupassant
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Maupassant, Guy de. Original Short Stories — Volume 01. Lex, lex-books.com/book/original-short-stories-volume-01-f7de7342-3424-40cf-8e07-5f80d18c7cd4.Maupassant, G. D. (1934). Original Short Stories — Volume 01. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/original-short-stories-volume-01-f7de7342-3424-40cf-8e07-5f80d18c7cd4Maupassant, Guy de. Original Short Stories — Volume 01. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/original-short-stories-volume-01-f7de7342-3424-40cf-8e07-5f80d18c7cd4.
