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ضوء القمر
مجموعة قصصية
ضوء القمر ، الحلية ، ولد ... إلخ
ضوء القمر ، الحلية ، ولد ... إلخ
238 pages, Unknown Binding
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About the author
Guy de Maupassant
7,475 books3,040 followersHenri 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
July 6, 2023
4.5 stars rounded up because it was 5 stars until the final story, seven short stories i want to talk about all of them !!!
moonlight - FAV, a true beauty, will be rereading its gorgeous descriptions of women and nature and night indefinitely
cockcrow - female manipulation and male subservience, saw others online call the ending anticlimactic but i think it’s everything
happiness - stunning story about true love and it’s definition, could’ve bawled like a baby. corsica is now on the bucket list
madame husson’s rose king - “no charitable act ever goes entirely to waste”, the dangers that come with fame and praise
who knows - i love me some madness and i actually liked the unreliability of the narrator, made it all the more bizarre and gripping
the horla - brilliant !!! so existential and thought provoking, his final speech at end omg marvellous
boule de suif - found the start very slow but the ending i could’ve cried, didn’t capture me like the other did may need to reread at a later stage
moonlight - FAV, a true beauty, will be rereading its gorgeous descriptions of women and nature and night indefinitely
cockcrow - female manipulation and male subservience, saw others online call the ending anticlimactic but i think it’s everything
happiness - stunning story about true love and it’s definition, could’ve bawled like a baby. corsica is now on the bucket list
madame husson’s rose king - “no charitable act ever goes entirely to waste”, the dangers that come with fame and praise
who knows - i love me some madness and i actually liked the unreliability of the narrator, made it all the more bizarre and gripping
the horla - brilliant !!! so existential and thought provoking, his final speech at end omg marvellous
boule de suif - found the start very slow but the ending i could’ve cried, didn’t capture me like the other did may need to reread at a later stage
December 31, 2023
Likte alle novellene, bortsett fra den siste som ikke fanget min oppmerksomhet. 🎉
June 5, 2023
Maupassant is a G
October 4, 2022
Guy de Maupassant's "Moonlight" is a short story about an evening one time love affair. How the moonlight could put romance into a love not really there.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
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Madame Julie Roubere was expecting her elder sister, Madame Henriette Letore, who had just returned from a trip to Switzerland. The Letore household had left nearly five weeks before. Madame Henriette had allowed her husband to return alone to their estate in Calvados, where some business required his attention, and had come to spend a few days in Paris with her sister. Night came on. In the
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17025
quiet parlor Madame Roubere was reading in the twilight in an absent-minded way, raising her, eyes whenever she heard a sound. At last, she heard a ring at the door, and her sister appeared, wrapped in a travelling cloak. And without any formal greeting, they clasped each other in an affectionate embrace, only desisting for a moment to give each other another hug. Then they talked about their health, about their respective families, and a thousand other things, gossiping, jerking out hurried,
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broken sentences as they followed each other about, while Madame Henriette was removing her hat and veil. It was now quite dark. Madame Roubere rang for a lamp, and as soon as it was brought in, she scanned her sister’s face, and was on the point of embracing her once more. But she held back, scared and astonished at the other’s appearance. On her temples Madame Letore had two large locks of white hair. All the rest of her hair was of a
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17032
glossy, raven-black hue; but there alone, at each side of her head, ran, as it were, two silvery streams which were immediately lost in the black mass surrounding them. She was, nevertheless, only twenty-four years old, and this change had come on suddenly since her departure for Switzerland. Without moving, Madame Roubere gazed at her in amazement, tears rising to her eyes, as she thought that some mysterious and terrible calamity must have befallen her sister. She asked:
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17036
“What is the matter with you, Henriette?” Smiling with a sad face, the smile of one who is heartsick, the other replied: “Why, nothing, I assure you. Were you noticing my white hair?” But Madame Roubere impetuously seized her by the shoulders, and with a searching glance at her, repeated: “What is the matter with you? Tell me what is the matter with you. And if you tell me a falsehood, I’ll soon find it out.”
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
Henriette is married to an older man who has no romance in his soul and she longs for this while they are on vacation and finds it with another gentleman. My question is how this has changed her for the future with her love for her husband and will there be others? It seems her husband is clueless.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17040
They remained face to face, and Madame Henriette, who looked as if she were about to faint, had two pearly tears in the corners of her drooping eyes. Her sister continued: “What has happened to you? What is the matter with you? Answer me!” Then, in a subdued voice, the other murmured: “I have — I have a lover.” And, hiding her forehead on the shoulder of her younger sister, she sobbed.
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Then, when she had grown a little calmer, when the heaving of her breast had subsided, she commenced to unbosom herself, as if to cast forth this secret from herself, to empty this sorrow of hers into a sympathetic heart. Thereupon, holding each other’s hands tightly clasped, the two women went over to a sofa in a dark corner of the room, into which they sank, and the younger sister, passing her arm over the elder one’s neck, and drawing her close to her heart, listened.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17048
“Oh! I know that there was no excuse for me; I do not understand myself, and since that day I feel as if I were mad. Be careful, my child, about yourself — be careful! If you only knew how weak we are, how quickly we yield, and fall. It takes so little, so little, so little, a moment of tenderness, one of those sudden fits of melancholy which come over you, one of those longings to open, your arms, to love, to cherish something, which we all have at certain moments.
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“You know my husband, and you know how fond I am of him; but he is mature and sensible, and cannot even comprehend the tender vibrations of a woman’s heart. He is always the same, always good, always smiling, always kind, always perfect. Oh! how I sometimes have wished that he would clasp me roughly in his arms, that he would embrace me with those slow, sweet kisses which make two beings intermingle, which are like mute confidences! How I have wished that he were foolish, even weak, so that he
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17055
should have need of me, of my caresses, of my tears! “This all seems very silly; but we women are made like that. How can we help it? “And yet the thought of deceiving him never entered my mind. Now it has happened, without love, without reason, without anything, simply because the moon shone one night on the Lake of Lucerne. “During the month when we were travelling together, my husband, with his calm indifference, paralyzed my enthusiasm, extinguished
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my poetic ardor. When we were descending the mountain paths at sunrise, when as the four horses galloped along with the diligence, we saw, in the transparent morning haze, valleys, woods, streams, and villages, I clasped my hands with delight, and said to him: ‘How beautiful it is, dear! Give me a kiss! Kiss me now!’ He only answered, with a smile of chilling kindliness: ‘There is no reason why we should kiss each other because you like the landscape.’
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“And his words froze me to the heart. It seems to me that when people love each other, they ought to feel more moved by love than ever, in the presence of beautiful scenes. “In fact, I was brimming over with poetry which he kept me from expressing. I was almost like a boiler filled with steam and hermetically sealed. “One evening (we had for four days been staying in a hotel at Fluelen) Robert, having one of his sick headaches, went to bed immediately after dinner, and I went to take a walk all alone along the edge of the lake. “It was a night such as one reads of in fairy tales. The full moon showed itself in the middle of the sky; the tall mountains, with their snowy crests, seemed to wear silver crowns; the waters of the lake glittered with tiny shining ripples. The air was mild, with that kind of penetrating warmth which enervates us till we are ready to faint, to be deeply affected without any apparent cause. But how sensitive,
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17070
how vibrating the heart is at such moments! how quickly it beats, and how intense is its emotion! “I sat down on the grass, and gazed at that vast, melancholy, and fascinating lake, and a strange feeling arose in me; I was seized with an insatiable need of love, a revolt against the gloomy dullness of my life. What! would it never be my fate to wander, arm in arm, with a man I loved, along a moon-kissed bank like this? Was I never to feel on my lips those kisses so deep, delicious, and intoxicating which lovers exchange on nights that seem to have been made by God for tenderness? Was I never to know ardent, feverish love in the moonlit shadows of a summer’s night? “And I burst out weeping like a crazy woman. I heard something stirring behind me. A man stood there, gazing at me. When I turned my head round, he recognized me, and, advancing, said: “‘You are weeping, madame?’ “It was a young barrister who was travelling with his mother, and
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whom we had often met. His eyes had frequently followed me. “I was so confused that I did not know what answer to give or what to think of the situation. I told him I felt ill. “He walked on by my side in a natural and respectful manner, and began talking to me about what we had seen during our trip. All that I had felt he translated into words; everything that made me thrill he understood perfectly, better than I did myself. And all of a sudden he repeated some verses of Alfred
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de Musset. I felt myself choking, seized with indescribable emotion. It seemed to me that the mountains themselves, the lake, the moonlight, were singing to me about things ineffably sweet. “And it happened, I don’t
know how, I don’t know why, in a sort of hallucination. “As for him, I did not see him again till the morning of his departure. “He gave me his card!”
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And, sinking into her sister’s arms, Madame Letore broke into groans — almost into shrieks. Then, Madame Roubere, with a self-contained and serious air, said very gently: “You see, sister, very often it is not a man that we love, but love itself. And your real lover that night was the moonlight.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17022
Madame Julie Roubere was expecting her elder sister, Madame Henriette Letore, who had just returned from a trip to Switzerland. The Letore household had left nearly five weeks before. Madame Henriette had allowed her husband to return alone to their estate in Calvados, where some business required his attention, and had come to spend a few days in Paris with her sister. Night came on. In the
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17025
quiet parlor Madame Roubere was reading in the twilight in an absent-minded way, raising her, eyes whenever she heard a sound. At last, she heard a ring at the door, and her sister appeared, wrapped in a travelling cloak. And without any formal greeting, they clasped each other in an affectionate embrace, only desisting for a moment to give each other another hug. Then they talked about their health, about their respective families, and a thousand other things, gossiping, jerking out hurried,
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17028
broken sentences as they followed each other about, while Madame Henriette was removing her hat and veil. It was now quite dark. Madame Roubere rang for a lamp, and as soon as it was brought in, she scanned her sister’s face, and was on the point of embracing her once more. But she held back, scared and astonished at the other’s appearance. On her temples Madame Letore had two large locks of white hair. All the rest of her hair was of a
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17032
glossy, raven-black hue; but there alone, at each side of her head, ran, as it were, two silvery streams which were immediately lost in the black mass surrounding them. She was, nevertheless, only twenty-four years old, and this change had come on suddenly since her departure for Switzerland. Without moving, Madame Roubere gazed at her in amazement, tears rising to her eyes, as she thought that some mysterious and terrible calamity must have befallen her sister. She asked:
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17036
“What is the matter with you, Henriette?” Smiling with a sad face, the smile of one who is heartsick, the other replied: “Why, nothing, I assure you. Were you noticing my white hair?” But Madame Roubere impetuously seized her by the shoulders, and with a searching glance at her, repeated: “What is the matter with you? Tell me what is the matter with you. And if you tell me a falsehood, I’ll soon find it out.”
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
Henriette is married to an older man who has no romance in his soul and she longs for this while they are on vacation and finds it with another gentleman. My question is how this has changed her for the future with her love for her husband and will there be others? It seems her husband is clueless.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17040
They remained face to face, and Madame Henriette, who looked as if she were about to faint, had two pearly tears in the corners of her drooping eyes. Her sister continued: “What has happened to you? What is the matter with you? Answer me!” Then, in a subdued voice, the other murmured: “I have — I have a lover.” And, hiding her forehead on the shoulder of her younger sister, she sobbed.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17045
Then, when she had grown a little calmer, when the heaving of her breast had subsided, she commenced to unbosom herself, as if to cast forth this secret from herself, to empty this sorrow of hers into a sympathetic heart. Thereupon, holding each other’s hands tightly clasped, the two women went over to a sofa in a dark corner of the room, into which they sank, and the younger sister, passing her arm over the elder one’s neck, and drawing her close to her heart, listened.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17048
“Oh! I know that there was no excuse for me; I do not understand myself, and since that day I feel as if I were mad. Be careful, my child, about yourself — be careful! If you only knew how weak we are, how quickly we yield, and fall. It takes so little, so little, so little, a moment of tenderness, one of those sudden fits of melancholy which come over you, one of those longings to open, your arms, to love, to cherish something, which we all have at certain moments.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17052
“You know my husband, and you know how fond I am of him; but he is mature and sensible, and cannot even comprehend the tender vibrations of a woman’s heart. He is always the same, always good, always smiling, always kind, always perfect. Oh! how I sometimes have wished that he would clasp me roughly in his arms, that he would embrace me with those slow, sweet kisses which make two beings intermingle, which are like mute confidences! How I have wished that he were foolish, even weak, so that he
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17055
should have need of me, of my caresses, of my tears! “This all seems very silly; but we women are made like that. How can we help it? “And yet the thought of deceiving him never entered my mind. Now it has happened, without love, without reason, without anything, simply because the moon shone one night on the Lake of Lucerne. “During the month when we were travelling together, my husband, with his calm indifference, paralyzed my enthusiasm, extinguished
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17059
my poetic ardor. When we were descending the mountain paths at sunrise, when as the four horses galloped along with the diligence, we saw, in the transparent morning haze, valleys, woods, streams, and villages, I clasped my hands with delight, and said to him: ‘How beautiful it is, dear! Give me a kiss! Kiss me now!’ He only answered, with a smile of chilling kindliness: ‘There is no reason why we should kiss each other because you like the landscape.’
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17063
“And his words froze me to the heart. It seems to me that when people love each other, they ought to feel more moved by love than ever, in the presence of beautiful scenes. “In fact, I was brimming over with poetry which he kept me from expressing. I was almost like a boiler filled with steam and hermetically sealed. “One evening (we had for four days been staying in a hotel at Fluelen) Robert, having one of his sick headaches, went to bed immediately after dinner, and I went to take a walk all alone along the edge of the lake. “It was a night such as one reads of in fairy tales. The full moon showed itself in the middle of the sky; the tall mountains, with their snowy crests, seemed to wear silver crowns; the waters of the lake glittered with tiny shining ripples. The air was mild, with that kind of penetrating warmth which enervates us till we are ready to faint, to be deeply affected without any apparent cause. But how sensitive,
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17070
how vibrating the heart is at such moments! how quickly it beats, and how intense is its emotion! “I sat down on the grass, and gazed at that vast, melancholy, and fascinating lake, and a strange feeling arose in me; I was seized with an insatiable need of love, a revolt against the gloomy dullness of my life. What! would it never be my fate to wander, arm in arm, with a man I loved, along a moon-kissed bank like this? Was I never to feel on my lips those kisses so deep, delicious, and intoxicating which lovers exchange on nights that seem to have been made by God for tenderness? Was I never to know ardent, feverish love in the moonlit shadows of a summer’s night? “And I burst out weeping like a crazy woman. I heard something stirring behind me. A man stood there, gazing at me. When I turned my head round, he recognized me, and, advancing, said: “‘You are weeping, madame?’ “It was a young barrister who was travelling with his mother, and
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17078
whom we had often met. His eyes had frequently followed me. “I was so confused that I did not know what answer to give or what to think of the situation. I told him I felt ill. “He walked on by my side in a natural and respectful manner, and began talking to me about what we had seen during our trip. All that I had felt he translated into words; everything that made me thrill he understood perfectly, better than I did myself. And all of a sudden he repeated some verses of Alfred
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17082
de Musset. I felt myself choking, seized with indescribable emotion. It seemed to me that the mountains themselves, the lake, the moonlight, were singing to me about things ineffably sweet. “And it happened, I don’t
know how, I don’t know why, in a sort of hallucination. “As for him, I did not see him again till the morning of his departure. “He gave me his card!”
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 17085
And, sinking into her sister’s arms, Madame Letore broke into groans — almost into shrieks. Then, Madame Roubere, with a self-contained and serious air, said very gently: “You see, sister, very often it is not a man that we love, but love itself. And your real lover that night was the moonlight.
November 13, 2024
Screaming crying throwing up !!! that was fucking beautiful !!!! I really loved all the stories except the last two. So romantic, so atmospheric, im in love
December 25, 2024
4 stars for ‘moonlight’
“And your real lover that night was the moonlight."
“And your real lover that night was the moonlight."
March 23, 2018
This story is a well written short story and Maupassant makes it clear what exactly he wants the readers to learn from the text. If you are looking to understand what exactly love is all about and where to find it then this is the tale for you.
Though this story is very straightforward there are some portions of it that do not seem as important. The story beginning with Madame Letore having such grave concern for her sister ends up being something that is never explained. This confuses me because after she gets over this worry that portion of the story is never looked at again. It seems unnecessary considering the real meaning of the story as a whole, I do not understand why Maupassant spent so much of the story on this scene.
Moonlight is a quick read and goes down easy, other than the small details that gave me pause, one wouldn’t find too much trouble comprehending the material. I would not recommend this to someone for leisurely reading but if this is an assignment or one is required to read this then you may enjoy it.
Though this story is very straightforward there are some portions of it that do not seem as important. The story beginning with Madame Letore having such grave concern for her sister ends up being something that is never explained. This confuses me because after she gets over this worry that portion of the story is never looked at again. It seems unnecessary considering the real meaning of the story as a whole, I do not understand why Maupassant spent so much of the story on this scene.
Moonlight is a quick read and goes down easy, other than the small details that gave me pause, one wouldn’t find too much trouble comprehending the material. I would not recommend this to someone for leisurely reading but if this is an assignment or one is required to read this then you may enjoy it.
March 14, 2023
Moonlight by Guy de Maupassant is a collection of short stories taken from A Parisian Affair and Other Stories (2004). It was published by Penguin as a Little Clothbound Classic on February 23rd and is translated by Siân Miles.
Containing seven stories, this selection provides the novice reader of his work, with a glorious insight into his writing. de Maupassant captures a glimpse of life in France in the late 1800s. A student of Flaubert, and a member of the Naturalist Literary movement, he became known as a master of the short story with his concise style and his portrayal of humanity at any given moment in time.
Remarkably observed, these stories are all of significance, economical in style and wonderfully astute. Moonlight is an excellent introduction to the writings of a man, who held certain sectors of society in disdain and used his pen to express his words and thoughts in a succinct and highly amusing manner.
Containing seven stories, this selection provides the novice reader of his work, with a glorious insight into his writing. de Maupassant captures a glimpse of life in France in the late 1800s. A student of Flaubert, and a member of the Naturalist Literary movement, he became known as a master of the short story with his concise style and his portrayal of humanity at any given moment in time.
Remarkably observed, these stories are all of significance, economical in style and wonderfully astute. Moonlight is an excellent introduction to the writings of a man, who held certain sectors of society in disdain and used his pen to express his words and thoughts in a succinct and highly amusing manner.
January 18, 2024
Marvellous set of stories in a lovely edition that sits in the hand beautifully. Apart from two of the stories, which I didn't get on with - Who Knows? and The Horla - each story I read became my new favourite. Boule de Suif, which I think is quite well known, was wonderful and sad and full of wisdom about the frailty of human beings. Can't wait to find more Maupassant to read.
September 2, 2022
My favorite so far of Maupassant's short stories. The dreadful priest awakening to love, realizing its holiness and feeling ashamed that he was going to have intervened to prevent love. The revelation the priest experiences is breathtaking.
March 7, 2016
"You see, sister, very often it is not a man that we love, but love itself. And your real lover that night was the moonlight."
October 6, 2025
A cool collection. Came into this having LOVED The Horla and wanting to read more from the author. Most of these stories are in a very different style, and interestingly there is a different version of The Horla here!
At first (reading The Horla) I was doubting my sanity a lot like the protagonist, but it seems there were multiple versions published. Very different retellings rather than just editions of the same story. I recommend anyone who liked this story look for the last version to be published, which is in a first-person journal format rather than a third-person frame narrative. It's even better than the story here.
The other stories were cool, well written, entertaining with nice moments. Surprisingly, I ended up quite liking the longer final story. The ultimate social commentary or message paid off. And the title story was a cool, almost modernist capturing of a moment of epiphany.
My other favourite story (alongside The Horla) was Who Knows? Really enjoyed the strange, unexplained events, and loved the Horla-esque (and King in Yellow-esque) paranoia of the protagonist. Built the sense of dread and fear very well, and this contrasted in a cool, uncanny way with the bizarre, almost fairy-tale misfortune that the narrator goes through.
Quotes/parts I liked:
- From "Why had God created this?" in Moonlight
- The description of the Horla and the narrator in the mirror...
- The narrator in Who Knows?: "Only one thing worries me: what if the dealer went mad? What if he were brought to this clinic?"
At first (reading The Horla) I was doubting my sanity a lot like the protagonist, but it seems there were multiple versions published. Very different retellings rather than just editions of the same story. I recommend anyone who liked this story look for the last version to be published, which is in a first-person journal format rather than a third-person frame narrative. It's even better than the story here.
The other stories were cool, well written, entertaining with nice moments. Surprisingly, I ended up quite liking the longer final story. The ultimate social commentary or message paid off. And the title story was a cool, almost modernist capturing of a moment of epiphany.
My other favourite story (alongside The Horla) was Who Knows? Really enjoyed the strange, unexplained events, and loved the Horla-esque (and King in Yellow-esque) paranoia of the protagonist. Built the sense of dread and fear very well, and this contrasted in a cool, uncanny way with the bizarre, almost fairy-tale misfortune that the narrator goes through.
Quotes/parts I liked:
- From "Why had God created this?" in Moonlight
- The description of the Horla and the narrator in the mirror...
- The narrator in Who Knows?: "Only one thing worries me: what if the dealer went mad? What if he were brought to this clinic?"
August 24, 2024
4.5⭐
AKA: Clair de lune #2; Moonlight#2
The abbey Marignan is extremely passionate about his religion to the point of fanaticism and hardened dogmatism, especially about morals and sexuality and with particular reference to the feminine portion of humanity. So when he is informed by a servant that his young niece, whom he had been grooming for a career as a nun, regularly meets a young man in the evening by the riverside he is beside himself with rage and decides to go out there for a walk and perhaps a decisive confrontation. But on his way he cannot help being quite overwhelmed by the silence and the beauty and the odiferous atmosphere of the moonlit river and countryside and begins to wonder why the good Lord had created such scenes, and is suddenly filled with enlightenment about the feelings of the young people in question.
AKA: Clair de lune #2; Moonlight#2
The abbey Marignan is extremely passionate about his religion to the point of fanaticism and hardened dogmatism, especially about morals and sexuality and with particular reference to the feminine portion of humanity. So when he is informed by a servant that his young niece, whom he had been grooming for a career as a nun, regularly meets a young man in the evening by the riverside he is beside himself with rage and decides to go out there for a walk and perhaps a decisive confrontation. But on his way he cannot help being quite overwhelmed by the silence and the beauty and the odiferous atmosphere of the moonlit river and countryside and begins to wonder why the good Lord had created such scenes, and is suddenly filled with enlightenment about the feelings of the young people in question.
March 20, 2024
Superb storytelling by one of the French greats of short story.
As usual, his biting commentary on French society, history, culture, and manners is fabulous.
Probably the best story on the selfishness and arrogance of the French bourgeoisie is Boule de Suif - 'ball of fat/lard' literally, but meant in this context to refer to a plump young prostitute, the moral axis of this powerful story.
As a parable on the venality of the bourgeois, the unearned power of privilege, degradation, and class distinction, you won't find one better.
As usual, his biting commentary on French society, history, culture, and manners is fabulous.
Probably the best story on the selfishness and arrogance of the French bourgeoisie is Boule de Suif - 'ball of fat/lard' literally, but meant in this context to refer to a plump young prostitute, the moral axis of this powerful story.
As a parable on the venality of the bourgeois, the unearned power of privilege, degradation, and class distinction, you won't find one better.
July 2, 2025
A neat collection of short stories which I enjoyed to read. My favourites are "Moonlight" and "Boule de Suif". Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) is an author from the 19th century which you can also feel from his "old school" writing. While reading, I kind of felt reminded to Kafka and Dostoevsky; not because their styles but because of the overall aura and how the stories are told and characters are introduced. This short story collection is more accessible than those of Kafka or Dostoevsky so they were a wonderful choice if you desire a lighter classic read.
January 30, 2025
3,5 stars. I really enjoyed those little stories, it's so well written and every one of them feels completely different. I love the atmosphere Guy de Maupassant creates and I like how some stories suddenly end. Some are left with an open endings and it makes them stuck in your head and you cannot help yourself, but to start imagining what happened next. I am looking forward to discover some more of his writing.
October 28, 2023
Really a 3.5* as the current average rating suggests. Like so many short stories, a mixed bag but it concludes with the oft broadcast Horla and the ultimate classic of Boule de Suif which shines a light on the hypocrisy and snobbery of the aristocracy and the plutocracy. 150 years on and nothing seems to have changed; something for us all to reflect upon.
September 29, 2025
only rating moonlight, and tbh, i was a bit unimpressed. it's a pretty boring account of a sister feeling guilty because monogamy expects one person to perfectly align with every need of one's unique soul, and then, woopsie, infidelity. like girl, you aren't the problem, the constraints society built around love are
March 25, 2024
Great atmosphere, and great writing throughout this collection of short stories. I am glad that I’m reading this so soon after watching the movie Napoleon as it gave me a lot of insight on this time period in France.
My favorite stories were ‘Happiness’ and ‘The Horla’.
My favorite stories were ‘Happiness’ and ‘The Horla’.
October 24, 2024
Variety of short stories, from comedy to romance and a touch of pre-sci-fi.
Running furniture and madness, prostitutes and monks, invisible aliens and the false decency of wealth and society. The best is Boule de Suif, leads you on quite the emotional ride.
Running furniture and madness, prostitutes and monks, invisible aliens and the false decency of wealth and society. The best is Boule de Suif, leads you on quite the emotional ride.
October 20, 2025
This is an exceptionally short story. It is about a niece who lives with her uncle, a priest. The priest is informed the nice goes out each evening to spend time with a man. In the process of waiting to catch her in the act the priest has a spiritual revelation.
June 11, 2021
It's too bad that Protestantism is a "bastard religion" c.f. The Marquis de Fumerol, otherwise one could divorce.
April 2, 2023
Absolutely wonderful. Incredibly well-written short stories that either leave you reveling in the splendor and beauty of life or with a deep urge to hurt the characters of the story.
August 11, 2023
نجمتان لأجل مقدمة أحمد حسن الزيات الرائعة عن الترجمة، ولأني عرفت جي دي موباسان.. أما عن أكثر قصة أعجبتني هي "التردد" لإرنست ليجوفيه.
February 2, 2024
"You see, sister, very often it is not a man that we love, but love itself. And your real lover that night was the moonlight."
December 25, 2025
Per usual, Maupassant writes short stories with societal commentary.
January 3, 2026
3.5 ⭐️
The Horla and Who Knows? are the standouts for me, although I can see why Boule de Suif is (perhaps) the most well-read of Maupassant's short stories
The Horla and Who Knows? are the standouts for me, although I can see why Boule de Suif is (perhaps) the most well-read of Maupassant's short stories
August 2, 2024
I did like the first two short stories in this im pretty sure but I’ve forgot them lol since I started this a couple months ago I think
The writing style is obviously gonna make it harder to focus on. But it was interesting looking up the short stories to understand them further.
3.5
The writing style is obviously gonna make it harder to focus on. But it was interesting looking up the short stories to understand them further.
3.5
November 10, 2024
Clair de Lune (1882) by Guy de Maupassant (not to be mistaken with his other short story,
Au Clair de Lune, written a year later in 1883) is an introspective short story that explores
deep and complicated themes, particularly around repression, religion, nature, spirituality,
and the sublime.
The protagonist, Abbé Marignan, is a conservative priest with harsh opinions about women.
He firmly believes that everything in nature has been created logically, yet he regards women
as the worst of God’s creations. Through his encounter with the sublime in a moonlit
landscape, Maupassant delves into the psychological mechanisms driving the priest’s disdain
for women and romantic love, illustrating the priest’s inner struggles as he faces nature,
women, and love with new, transformed perspectives.
Au Clair de Lune, written a year later in 1883) is an introspective short story that explores
deep and complicated themes, particularly around repression, religion, nature, spirituality,
and the sublime.
The protagonist, Abbé Marignan, is a conservative priest with harsh opinions about women.
He firmly believes that everything in nature has been created logically, yet he regards women
as the worst of God’s creations. Through his encounter with the sublime in a moonlit
landscape, Maupassant delves into the psychological mechanisms driving the priest’s disdain
for women and romantic love, illustrating the priest’s inner struggles as he faces nature,
women, and love with new, transformed perspectives.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews