Guy De Maupassant's Biography(Books)(Photos)

Henri Rene Albert Guy de Maupassant (5 August
1850 – 6 july 1893) was a popular

only two small vices - her love of the
theater and her passion for artificial

19th-century French writer, considered one of
the fathers of the modern short story and one

jewels. One wintry evening she comes from the
opera shivering with cold and a week later

of the form's finest exponents.

she dies. Lantin is haunted by his memories,
and plunges into poverty. He takes her

A protege of Flaubert, Maupassant's stories
are characterized by their economy of style

necklace to a jeweler who tells that it is
very valuable. Lantin has believed that his

and efficient, effortless denouement. Many of
the stories are set during the

wife's jewelry were fakes because she could
not have purchased valuable items. He

Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s and several
describe the futility of war and the innocent

realizes that they were gifts and the truth
makes him weep bitterly. "As he walked along,

civilians who, caught in the conflict, emerge
changed. He also wrote six novels.

Lantin said to himself, "How easy it is to be
happy when you're rich! With money you can

yourself." He sells her jewelry, resigns from
his work, and enjoys the theater for the

Maupassant fictionalized true occurrences or
tales told to him, but his experiences as a

first time in his life. "Six months later he
married. His second wife was a most worthy

reporter and columnist provided him material.
In 1881 he reported on the French campaign

woman, but rather difficult. She made his
life unbearable."

against Tunisia. His tales were marked by
objectivity, highly controlled style, and

Maupassant had suffered from his 20s from

sometimes sheer comedy. Usually they were
built around simple episodes from everyday

syphilis. The disease later caused increasing
mental disorder - also seen in his

life, which revealed the hidden sides of
people. Maupassant has been accused of

nightmarish stories, which have much in
common with Edgar Allan Poe's supernatural

misogynism, but his portrayal of prostitutes
was sympathetic. According to Maupassant, a

visions. Critics have charted Maupassant's
developing illness through his

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".

is present even in his first collection, La
Maison Tellier (1881), published at the

On several occasions the tales were narrated

height of his health.

in the first person or were told by a named
character. In 'The Jewels of M. Lantin' the

On January 2, in 1892, Maupassant tried to
commit suicide by cutting his throat and was

chief clerk of the Minister of the Interior
marries the daughter of a provincial tax

committed to the celebrated private asylum of
Dr. Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris, where