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 in the anthology Les Soirées de Medan (1880) his masterpiece,
'Boule de Suif' (Ball of Fat, 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)

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) -
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) / 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 - 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. by Roger Pearson) - 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. by 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 (tr. by 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. by 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. by Clara Bell, 1890) / Pierre and
Jean (translated by tr. 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. by 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)
 ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES, 1907-10 (29 vols.)
 ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES ILLUSTRÉES, 1934 (15 vols.)
 CHRONIQQUES, ÉTUDES, CORRESPONDANCE DE GUY DE
MAUPASSANT, 1940
 LETTRES INÉDITES À GUTAVE FLAUBERT , 1941
 Complete Short Stories, 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. by 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)
 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)