The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

by Guy de Maupassant

Genres: Classics, Fiction, France

Hardcover

About the author

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer. He is one of the fathers of the modern short story. A protege of Flaubert, Maupassant's short stories are characterized by their economy of style and their efficient effortless dénouement. He also wrote six short novels. A number of his stories often denote the futility of war and the innocent civilians who get crushed in it - many are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s.

Reviews

[Sarah Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually remember reading this for one of my literature classes and I’m glad I stumbled back on to it. It has so many character / moral lessons tucked within it, and while it’s not exactly uplifting, it isn’t dark in the same way that many other short stories from classic literature are.

A young woman wants to be rich, gets invited to a special ball, borrows a necklace, and loses said necklace. This is her journey from the stories that commence packed full of fantastic discussion topics.

Well written, engaging, good character and moral discussion topics, and not so horrifically dark in comparison to others of its genre. I personally feel that this is a great short story that is very age and topic appropriate for late middle school or early high school.

This short story (approx. 6 pages) can easily be found for free through legit websites such as Project Gutenberg and government archives.

[Kanwarpal Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Madame Mathilde Loisel longs to be wealthy and to live a lifestyle her low-paid clerk husband cannot afford to give her, though he does his best to make her happy.

After lots of requests, he produces two invitations to a fancy party, which she at first refuses for she has nothing to wear. Her husband gives her money he had saved for a luxury purchase of his own for her to buy a gown with, and she borrows a diamond necklace from a wealthier friend. When she arrives home late after the party and discovers the necklace missing from her neck, Mathilde and her husband attempt to replace the piece of jewelry without alarming Mathilde's friend, but it proves an expensive and painstaking task.

They gave her a new original piece of jewellery, that cost them fortune and they came under debt, for many years they worked hard and paid their debt and when Mathilde met her friend later, the friend confessed the truth about that necklace was not original but an artificial diamond necklace

[Arijit Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman enamoured by the glamour of high society dreams of marrying into it, instead ends up marrying a working-class clerk and then learns her lesson as life happens all around her. We have all heard stories like this a lot; maybe for the time being it was quite the trend-setter, but didn’t have much of an effect on me. An okay read overall.

[Margot Meanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story with a trust ironic ending. A woman borrows an expensive necklace to wear to a high-society event but loses it.

The story explores looking for happiness in material wealth and a discrepancy between reality and appearance.

[Colleen Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightfully frustrating short story about how spending life yearning will leave you with regret. There are many other layers of lessons tucked inside this tale. I enjoyed the unraveling of this story.

[Neamat Hindam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh yaany aady

[kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

miss girl got what she deserved

*english assigned reading*

[Bri Blosenski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Themes: selfishness & pride, wealth, social class, appearance vs. reality, honesty vs. dishonesty

[friedmagnolialeaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

resonant of The Pearl by Steinback. Short and sweet, a straight forward modern fable

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good short story that makes you question the purpose of happiness and not taking for granted what you truly have.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guy de Maupassant almost always guarantees an ending with a twist