Beautiful Friend — Xiang Shu

Author: (French) Guy de Maupassant, translated by He Zengong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: The ancients said, "Travel ten thousand miles and read ten thousand books." For modern people, traveling ten thousand miles is easy, but reading ten thousand books is difficult. The wheels of technology are sweeping across the world at an astonishing speed. The modern people, busy in front of computers and all kinds of machines all day, have turned the Earth into a village with wires, optical cables, tracks, or air routes. With a click of the mouse, we can paste ourselves anywhere in the world. However, facing the vast civilization, without the foundation of reading ten thousand books, we not only frequently encounter the awkwardness of "meeting face to face but not recognizing each other," but we also accumulate the strangeness that comes from the depths of our hearts. For this, we long for a deeper understanding, a heart-to-heart connection; we long for a return to a way of traveling—before traveling ten thousand miles, put a few books in our spiritual backpack so that our steps and souls can go further. A spiritual journey does not require "writing essays in youth and exhausting one's mind in old age," nor does it require hanging the headboard to study or stealing light through the wall. It does not require a red sleeve adding fragrance or never putting down the book. A spiritual journey only requires reading a few classics in the leisure of life. Novels, essays, and poems can all be made into soup for the soul; buses, subways, and even the palm of your hand can be your desk. Therefore, we have tailored a "pocket library" for busy urban dwellers. Classics are the soul of the library; easy to absorb is the essence of the library; reading anytime, anywhere, and in any way is the purpose of the library. The selected works in the library are all the timeless classics that have been refined after exposing themselves to the harsh realities of foreign civilizations; the illustrations, carefully selected and painstakingly collected from hundreds of rare books and private collections, are a true restoration of the essence of the classics. The small format design makes it as clever as a wallet; the special printing technology makes every book "filled with hidden fragrance in the sleeves." Classics are not afraid of time, but life cannot withstand the erosion of "time flies." The charm of classics is better seen than heard. It is better to use them to mend the gaps in our time, to add value to the fragments of our days; it is better to use on-the-go reading to gather wisdom piece by piece and to understand life in the spiritual journey. Reading classics, with the least travel expenses, to reach the furthest corners of life. The Beautiful Friend is one of the major long novels by the French 19th-century writer Guy de Maupassant. The novel tells the story of Georges Duroy, an ambitious and cunning young man, who does not hesitate to use any means to seek fame and fortune. In this novel, love has become a tool, a ladder. The protagonist Duroy uses his handsome appearance and unique charm to attract many noblewomen, constantly climbing the upper class. While successfully portraying the character of Duroy, the author also creates three women of the time. Madame Forestier is obsessed with power; for her, love and marriage are just means to seek allies. Madame de Maupassant is full of fantasies and treats love as if it were a game. Madame Walter is strict and adheres to traditional virtues, but once she falls in love, she cannot help herself. Through these characters and stories, the writer shows us the treacherous and inhumane social reality of the upper class in 19th-century France.