A Day in the Country and Other Stories

by Guy de Maupassant, David Coward (Translator)

In addition to the poignant title story, this selection of 27 comic and cruel stories includes The Necklace and Le Horla, an account of a disintegrating personality that chillingly parallels the author's own decline into madness.

Out on the River
Simon's Dad
Family Life
A Farm Girl's Story
A Day in the Country
Marroca
Country Livign
Riding out
A Railway Story
Old Milon
Our Chum Patience
A Coup d'Etat
The Christening
Coco
A Coward
The Patron
The Umbrella
The Necklace
Strolling
Bed 29
The Gamekeeper
The Little Roque Girl
Mademoiselle Pearl
Rosalie Prudent
Our Spot
Clochette
Le Horla

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, France, French Literature, 19th Century, Literature

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1881

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

[Minh Nhân Nguyễn · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 sao

Đọc sách dịch thì có một vấn đề lớn là khi đọc một cuốn sách dở ta không biết được do vốn dĩ cuốn sách đó dở hay do bản dịch dở. Nhưng may quá, đọc cuốn này mình có thể khẳng định là do bản dịch quá dở :p. Nhiều đoạn văn trúc trắc, từ ngữ vụng về đọc là nhận ra liền. Nhưng mình vẫn cố gắng theo hết quyển sách cũng nhờ nội dung của nhiều truyện khá hấp dẫn, nhưng cũng tiếc là nhiều truyện mình không hiểu được ý đồ tác giả.

Truyện ngắn của Guy de Maupassant thường xoay quanh chủ đề ngoại tình với bối cảnh miền quê, những tình cảnh oái oăm xảy ra do những qui định hà khắc về giai cấp thời bấy giờ, đưa đến những câu chuyện buồn khổ, có khi lại dẫn đến một kết cục đau lòng. Một số truyện mang nhiều hơi hướm kinh dị, như khi một nhân vật phải đương đầu với sự cô độc do bị cô lập giữa vùng bão tuyết dữ dội hay một người bị ám ảnh bởi tội ác do mình gây ra. Cũng có khi chỉ là một chuyện quái dị được kể lại, không có bài học gì được rút ra nhưng chính sự mô tả sinh động, đầy kịch tính của tác giả đã làm cho câu chuyện hấp dẫn.

Mình đọc quyển này vì biết Maupassant là một bậc thầy truyện ngắn, nhưng quyển sách đã làm mình thất vọng, mà chủ yếu là do bản dịch - phải gọi là vô trách nhiệm - gây ra. Mà mình cũng thấy khá lạ vì đầu sách có một đoạn giới thiệu khá kỹ về tác giả làm mình nghĩ người dịch cũng có tâm huyết lắm.

Cũng từ cuốn này mà về sau mình sẽ thôi thói quen cứ thấy tác giả, tác phẩm mình đang quan tâm có bản dịch tiếng Việt là chộp lấy ngay mà không biết mức độ đầu tư của quyển sách ra sau, hay nói cách khác là sau này chỉ mua sách dịch mới phát hành từ các nhà làm sách uy tín thôi, không sục sạo khắp các diễn đàn sách cũ như trước nữa :).

Cho quyển này 3 sao thật không nỡ, nhưng cũng có lúc tính cho 1 2 sao nữa kìa, hy vọng sau này sẽ được gặp lại Maupassant ở 1 cuốn sách xứng tầm với ông hơn.

[Steve Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine collection of stories from this master, with very few duds. They’re concise and easy to read, yet say so much in just a few pages. A couple of my favourites are here; ‘The Little Roque Girl’ (aka The Case Of Louise Roque) in which a dead woman is found in the mayor’s grounds has great atmosphere, characters and setting. Whilst ‘The Necklace,’ in which a poor girl loses a borrowed necklace at a party and saves for years to buy a new one, has a fine twist.

Other memorable stories are ‘Simon’s Dad’ (a fatherless boy is tormented in a story of human cruelty and warmth); ‘Family Life’ (a weak man prematurely mourns the death of his mother in this character story); ‘A Farm Girl’s Story’ (a woman makes poor choices in men); ‘Coco’ (a cruel farm boy is tired of looking after an old nag); ‘Strolling’ (is a sad story of a rather pathetic office worker who has no excitement in his life); ‘Bed 29’ (on returning from the war, an officer finds that his mistress has caught syphilis from the enemy); ‘Rosalie Prudent’ (a woman has to keep her pregnancy quiet); ‘Clochette’ (a none too pretty woman dies and the truth of her first love comes out is quite funny in places); and the much anthologised ‘Le Horla’ (a fascinating story about the goings-on in the mind of an ailing man).

I’m a big admirer of both Robert Aickman (a book by whom I have just finished, 'Cold Hand In Mine') and Guy de Maupassant. Yet they are so very different. Whereas Aickman is all opaque mystery; Maupassant is clear, concise and straightforward. And that’s the joy of reading; there’s room for both…

[Insidebooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories might have plenty of variety but it is all written with great mastery of a form that eludes some writers.

Here the reader's attention is grabbed through a number of different ways including thriller, ghost story as well as insights into the social world of 19th century French life.

To pick out a selection from the first third of the book to give a flavour is not too difficult.

Simon's Dad is a heart warming tale of a boy seeking a father to end the bullying at school and as a result ending years of shame and pain for his mother by landing his mother a husband. You find your heart swelling at the end of the story as Simon informs his bullies that their days of targeting him are over.

Then you get a change in mood with the story that gives the title to the collection, A Day in the Country, providing a girl from a shopkeeping family with a moment of love that she can never forget. Her bawdy mother and ineffectual father are used brilliantly to illustrate the difference between those working in the suburbs and country folk.

That difference between the country and the city is also picked up in the story Riding Out which sees a man keen to show his family he can ride knocking down an old woman as he loses control of his steed in central Paris.

If there was a theme to the first third of the collection it might have been countryside and the second has stories that make various references to money. The Necklace describes the costs that borrowing and losing a necklace have on one couple only for them to discover at the end of a decade spent clearing their debts that it wasn't worth a great deal of money.

Penny pinching is on display again in The Umbrella where a woman wants her husband to have a good umbrella but is not prepared to pay for that. As his work colleagues ruin the cheap ones that he turns up to work with she would rather claim on the insurance than pay out for a proper umbrella.

That ability to pierce a side of someone's character is on display again with Bed 29 where a proud and vain solider is unable to show compassion for an old lover struck down with syphillis. Happy to be seen with her when she was beautiful he has no words of comfort for her when she is ill.

The last third of the book contains some of the longer and darker stories. The Little Roque Girl is an account of the discovery of a murdered girl and then the unravelling of the Major's mind. Responsible for her rape and death he finally loses his mind after being haunted by her ghost.

Our Spot is also fairly dark showing off the agression of a couple that lose their fishing spot on the river bank. Their anger at losing out results in the death of the rival fisherman but as the court case recounts the anger and death is more by accident and the fisherman is aquitted.

A great collection of stories that provoke various reactions but come from a writer clearly able to turn his pen at will to deliver stories of very quality.

[Tuan Doan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have this overwhelming sense of disturbance reading the way Maupassant describe the human condition as neither good nor having the potential for good. Henry James put it the best when he says :

"[Maupassant] fixes a hard eye on some spots of human life, usually some dreary, ugly, shabby, sordid one, takes up the particle, and squeezes it either till it grimaces or till it bleeds."

I don't know much about Maupassant's life, but I very much wonder what drives his fascination and minute attention to the dark, mysterious and irresistible forces inside us. Few of his characters are able to triumph against their baser selves. Most would let their logos completely be overridden by their basic instinct, and drive themselves to their own demise. In The Little Roque girl, the protagonist Renardet's path to destruction was the result of his multiple failed attempt to impose clear reasoning over either his sexual impulse or his paranoia driven both by a sense of guilt and the fear of being discovered for his crime. In Le Horla, these types of inner forces even emerge as a superior being with a separate existence and allude to, in a similar fashion as that in Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, "the split personality."

The problem is, if it is hard to read Maupassant without feeling uncomfortable at his portrayal of humankind as their own menace, it is even harder to think he is laying the blame on the eccentric motivation and idiosyncratic action of individuals. There are characters that are presented with genuine sympathy and even with admiration, like Irma (Bed 29) who accounted for more Prussians live in the time of war than the fine Captain Epivent, like Clochette (Clochette) who sacrifices herself for love, or like Rosalie Prudent (Rosalie Prudent) who kills her baby because she is too poor. None of them escapes the bleak fatalism.

One way to reconcile all of this is to think of Maupassant's characters as merely exercising Pavlovian reactions to natural and inner stimuli, entirely at the mercy of circumstances or of their own temperament. Irma couldn't resist the reality that her hometown was lost to the Prussian, so she forsook her life and made the most of the circumstances by inflicting them with syphilis. Renardet was fully aware of the source of his own paranoia, but could do little to suppress it. If that is the case: that in Maupassant's eyes, human is truly helpless, and that lives are but chronicles of missed opportunities and broken paths engineered by the ruthless demands of nature and the inhumanity of fellow human, it would be very sad :(

[Karim Rhayem · Rating 5 out of 5]

[5/5] : Il n’y a rien à dire à propos de Guy de Maupassant qui n’a toujours pas été dit : son style est si unique et ses descriptions si expressives. Dans les quelques nouvelles formant « Une partie de campagne », Maupassant se réaffirme comme étant un des meilleurs auteurs de son temps. Il est impressionnant de voir des personnages si bien étudiés, et leur psychologie si profondément décrite, en quelques pages seulement ; à travers leurs répliques, mais aussi leurs actions, pensées, réactions, et relations. Le réalisme de son œuvre est attachant, et ses histoires basculent entre la réalité et l’absurdité – toujours avec la fin ironique ou inattendue, signature de l’écrivain.
Ce qui m’interpella surtout dans ce recueil de nouvelles est son actualité. En effet, « Une partie de campagne » est ma cinquième lecture de Maupassant – hormis les maintes nouvelles et œuvres lues à part – et la première fois où je lis une telle satire sociale. En effet, l’auteur inclut toujours des morales sur la hiérarchie, les classes sociales, et certaines idéologies de façon ironique ou fantastique dans la plupart de ses œuvres – d’où son appartenance, voire son titre de chef de fil du Réalisme/Naturalisme. Néanmoins, cette œuvre est ancrée dans la critique sociale : des mariages imposés, aux droits de la femme, la violence, la pauvreté, la matérialité, le désir, la sexualité ; une myriade de thèmes, tantôt tabous, tantôt drôles, sont évoqués.
Cette actualité se traduit surtout dans les thèmes des droits de la femme, et de la communauté LGBT, dans une œuvre composée en 1881. En effet, je fus surpris de desceller certaines influences féministes dans ses textes alors que le mouvement n’était toujours pas évoqué : Maupassant défend les femmes, dénonce leur objectivisation, ainsi que la violence contre elles, qu’elle soit physique, verbale, ou même idéologique. Une nouvelle est même consacrée à une femme homosexuelle, ainsi que les stéréotypes dirigés contre la communauté LGBT qu’il critique. Remarquer qu’une œuvre de la fin du 19e siècle critique les mêmes problèmes toujours présents en 2020 après des avancées scientifiques et d’idées majeures, devrait faire penser.
En somme, Maupassant reste un de mes auteurs favoris, et une école en elle-même quant à la rédaction, la description, l’imagination, et le symbolisme réaliste portant en lui des critiques sociales.

[Stef Smulders · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A mixed bag. A few excellent stories and lot that are so-so. The longer ones are the best, as if these are the stories the author devoted more time to. The short ones, in contrast, seem to be hastily written and sent off to the magazines and newspapers he published them in. But writing a good short story takes effort. “Sorry to write you such a long letter, I did not have the time to write a short one” as who-was-it-again wrote.
So I liked ‘Family Life’, ‘A Farm Girl’s Story’, ‘A Day in the Country’, ‘The Little Roque Girl’ and ‘Mademoiselle Pearl’ very much. The famous ‘Le Horla’ less so, as it feels to artificial to a modern taste. The horror of the mayor in the Roque girl story is much more real, psychologically convincing.
The worst story of the collection is ‘Coco’: the composition is a mess and this version would only do as a first draft. Some of the other shorter stories are too predictable or plainly sentimental like ‘Simon’s Dad’.

De Maupassant excels in atmosphere and character description and psychology, when he allows himself the time and space to develop these.
Read the paragraph starting with ‘The girl,...’ here: https://books.google.nl/books?id=SB0i...
It is a miracle.
Or: ‘Sudden waves of tenderness swept over her, intuitions of poetical, super-human absolutes, and a softening of the heart and nerves so sweet that she wept without knowing why.’
‘Steadily he tramped over the damp spongy moss, while a legion of rooks which arrived from miles around to sleep in the high tree-tops, unfurled across the sky like a huge mourning veil flapping in the wind and uttered explosive, baleful cries.’

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read many books on writing and a high percentage indicate that Maupassant was a master, if not the master, storyteller.
I did learn a good amount from him. He’s got great technique, no question. More correctly, he had great technique for his audience. His audience didn’t have mobiles, the ‘net, social networks as we know them, tv, radio, ... The majority of their information and entertainment came to them from reading and talking.
Do his stories hold up? For the most part, yes. Do I recommend them? If you’re a writing student, yes. There’s a lot to learn here. Great use of narrative, description, character interaction, internal v external challenges. There’s not a lot of plot - there didn’t have to be in his day. Stories weren’t necessarily escapist literature as the term is used today.
If you’re not a writing student? You might get bored. The diversity of topics and storytelling styles - Maupassant wrote for an amazingly wide audience - is pretty grand. I’m sure you’d find one or two gems. Not sure finding those one or two would be worth it to the casual reader, though.

[James Roseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. Maupassant is known as the father of the modern short story, and the way this collection differs from the ones I read just before (by Flaubert and then Zola) shows how it developed. He focuses on tenants I've been taught my entire life when it comes to writing: start in the middle of the action; don't waste time on description that is not immediately relevant to the plot; get inside the head of the characters. I wasn't as absorbed in these stories as the ones by Zola, but I enjoyed them immensely more than Three Tales by Flaubert. In particular, I really enjoyed "Marroca," "A Farm Girl's Story," "The Necklace," "A Coup d'État," "Old Milon," "Bed 29," "Country Living" and particularly, "Simon's Dad." It seems I was most drawn to Maupassant at his most cruel and most ironic (with the exception of "Simon's Dad").

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't actually read this edition, and I've only read the title story, but FWIW here's what I thought about it: https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/01/13/a... and I cross-posted it at Marvellous Maupassant as well: https://marvellousmaupassant.wordpres...

[Jenifaël · Rating 3 out of 5]

Les nouvelles de ce recueil m'ont plus ou moins plu. Autant je n'ai pas bien compris l'intérêt de certaines histoires (L'ivrogne, Histoire vraie, La roche aux guillemots), autant j'ai beaucoup aimé Sur l'eau dont la fin vaut le détour, Histoire d'une fille de ferme qui est réaliste, triste et tendre à la fois, ou encore Le gueux qui est tout simplement horrible mais si cruellement juste et fataliste. On retrouve les thèmes chers à l'auteur dont notamment : la vie quotidienne, l'hypocrisie de la société, la condition des femmes (comme quoi, ça ne date pas d'hier...), la mort ou encore la vie provinciale.

[Lindsey Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Guy de Maupassant just became my favorite short story writer. I loved nearly every story in this collection. Maupassant excels at building a scene and then giving the story a twist and even though you start expecting the twist he still manages to surprise you. The only story I didn't like was Coco. It's funny that this collection is called A Day in the Country and has a charming Impressionist pairing on the cover becuase many of these stories are rather dark, including a few of my favorites, The Necklace, Rosalie Prudent and The Little Roque Girl. Others like Mademoiselle Pearl are just sad. The Horla shows a man's descent into madness, much like Maupassant's own. When I read Van Gogh's. biography earlier this year it talked about how he liked Maupassant and thought Maupassant wrote in a way that similar to what the Impressionists were doing with art. He was creating impressions of scenes, showing things through a different perspective. There are perhaps a few stories by other authors that I like better but as a whole I think this is he strongest collection I've read.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 stars for the stories (the depressive cynical style may not be everyone's cup of tea) and an extra star for the supporting introduction, explanatory notes and critics comments as found in this edition (always appreciated with classics)...and now I'm off to shoot myself.

[Pollo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuatro cuentos del francés traducidos por Ribeyro, además de una introducción suya. Se leen en un día. Para qué más. Un plus es que estos cuatro cuentos no los tengo en otras ediciones del mismo autor galo.

[Desdemona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I would chill with some stories about the French countryside, felt existential dread instead. Great, would read again.

[Yas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maupassant really is one of a kind. I wouldn't be able to handle a single conversation with him. He scares me haha. Not his best works here, that's for sure. Even from a stylistic point of view; I know he writes much better.
Very unexpected themes popped up here - I laughed. "La Femme de Paul" was...queer (as in "peculiar", but hey i had to make the pun), for something written in the 19th century...But then, it's french literature so nothing should surprise me...
I still like Maupassant though. I'll probably forever like him. He was among the first ones I read after all. One day I shall try to read "Une Vie" again...

Mention spéciale pour "Au Printemps". Oddly...familiar...

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in this form in 1990, 'A Day in the Country and Other Stories' is a fine collection of 27 stories by Maupassant, all of such quality that there is little to choose between them. That said, my personal favourites were 'A Day in the Country', 'Bed 29' and 'The Little Roque Girl' but this may say more about me than it does about the stories. All I know is, these tales are all amazing and I must seek more of them out.

[David Sterritt]

Guy de Maupassant has a grim appeal for me. Although he occasionally looks at the bright side of something, his cynicism and pessimism are more persuasive, and they’re even fun in a grumpy, brooding way. “A Day in the Country and Other Stories,” an Oxford collection translated, edited, and annotated by David Coward, contains a generous selection of tales, starting with the second-rate “Out on the River” and concluding with “Le Horla,” one of his major classics. Dourly recommended.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maupassant à un problème pour écrire des histoires où l'homme fait attention au consentement de la femme. Ca m'a tellement dérangé pendant que je lisais qu'a chaque histoire il y ai des problèmes de consentement et si quelqu'un ose dire que c'est des recueils d'histoire d'Amour qu'il aille consulter.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Buckakles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based and Maup pilled

[Parker Samelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maupassant is a master of Naturalism and the short story.

[Fati · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read “A Day in the Country” but I couldn’t find the short story alone here in goodreads, so I’ll use this for my records.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I love Short Stories
because they can give you such intense Slices of Reality,
Turning Point Moments sometimes...you don't require the FULL account.
It leaves your mind free to ponder consequences.
Or implications.
Or Insights, Revelations.
Cause Discomforts, open up Dangerous Territory.
Or New Sympathies and alter Strong Confirmations.

These and those of Henry James
are such worlds apart
and yet both are revealing of Human Nature.

The appendix to this Oxford compilation
quotes 9 contemporary critics of de Maupassant.

One compares and contrasts him with Chekhov.

One gives his opinion of M's opinion of women.

He has a 'sense of the tragedy of everyday life'.

He is 'emotionally impotent' and 'has never felt
that need for tenderness which torments us all.'

'He sees life as a terribly ugly business relieved by
the comical'...'he stands like a lion in the path.'

'He has never flattered human nature. He has never scrupled to ride roughshod over our optimism
and spit on our cherished ideals...but....with such honesty and straightforwardness,
with a heart that is so simple and staunch, that no one can truly find him objectionable.'

In these stories I came across a Catholic priest haunted by his celibacy,
a child raped and murdered, civilians enduring the cruelty of occupying soldiers,
a young boy bullied at school, an unmarried mother facing the reality of twins,
a murderer shocked by his actions.
All so Contemporary.
Human Nature does not change like the fashions.
It endures...which is why these stories will move you,
resonate...and even cause mirth.

I have my FOURTH Volume of de Maupassant waiting in the wings!!!!!

[L'Occitane littéraire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une merveille poétique et brillante par un auteur tout aussi sensationnel, Guy de Maupassant, dont la chronique est disponible sur le blog : http://bookymary.blogspot.fr/2015/11/...

[Rosanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je n'aime pas lire au sujet de la morte et de l'amour perdu. Toutes les histoires sont bien écrit. J'aime le dialogue des normands.

[Hillcloptushome.com.au · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short concise stories often with an unexpected twist at the end. Very enjoyable and often somewhat bleak.

[Iris Windmeijer · Rating 3 out of 5]

[i]I only read a Day in the Country[/i]

A Day in the Coutnry is a really nice short story, it is entertaining and the language is simple yet nice.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished in mid-to-late 2013.

[Linda Collings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story collections are hit and miss. Loved some others not so much.

[Bonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb! Great short story collection. It's really sweet.