Selected Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant - High School Edition (Revised Version)

Author: (French) Guy de Maupassant
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-06-04
Features: Guy de Maupassant was born into a declining aristocratic family in the department of Seine-Maritime in Normandy. His father was a spendthrift who squandered the family estate before taking a job at a bank in Paris. After his parents separated, his mother took Guy de Maupassant back to their hometown. At the age of thirteen, he was sent to a church school for education. However, due to the influence of his romantic mother from a young age, he could not tolerate the gloomy atmosphere of the school. In 1868, he was expelled from school for writing a love poem, and then he attended the public school in Le Havre. There, he received guidance from the Parnassian poet Louis Bouilhet. If Bouilhet had not died prematurely, we might know the poet Guy de Maupassant today. In 1869, after graduating from high school, Maupassant went to Paris to study law. The following year, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and he enlisted in the army, serving as a clerk and messenger. The French army was defeated, and Maupassant nearly surrendered during the retreat. The next year, he was discharged from the army and began his obscure career as a small office worker. But at this seemingly ordinary and seemingly hopeless stage of his life, an important figure appeared—his mother’s childhood friend, Gustave Flaubert. Flaubert’s dedicated guidance in writing has always been regarded as a remarkable and celebrated story in literary circles. As Maupassant’s writing mentor, Flaubert not only taught him how to choose words and construct sentences but also honed his ability to observe life. The vivid and realistic images in Maupassant’s works all stem from meticulous observation and precise expression.