Selected Stories

by Guy de Maupassant, Marjorie Laurie (Translator), Brian Rhys (Translator)

A beautiful hardcover selection of the best works by one of the greatest short story writers in world literature

During his most productive decade, the 1880s, the French writer Guy de Maupassant wrote more than three hundred stories, notably including "The Necklace," "Boule de Suif," "The Horla," and "Mademoiselle Fifi." Marked by the psychological realism that he famously pioneered, the stories selected here take us on a tour of the human experience—lust and love, revenge and ridicule, terror and madness. Many take place in the author's native Normandy, but the settings range farther abroad as well, from Brittany and Paris to Corsica and the Mediterranean coast, and as far as North Africa and India.

Maupassant's remarkable psychological range and ability to evoke an entire world in a few pages have ensured that his stories have entertained generations of readers, and this volume of thirty-two of his most enduring masterpieces makes a perfect gift for any lover of classic fiction.

Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, France, Literature, Fiction

408 pages, Hardcover

Published October 5, 2021

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

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rating here is mainly for this specific collection, not necessarily the quality of Maupassant's writing. He was clearly a talented guy (ha), and many stories here prove the diversity of his abilities. However, the collection itself is a little overstuffed, and I feel like there were several stories I could have done without (the worst offender being the painfully dull "The Hostelry"). But if I could put together a "greatest hits" of these stories, they'd definitely be at least 4 stars and would have to include "Boule de Suif", "Mademoiselle Fifi", "Boitelle" (a surprisingly progressive tale of a failed interracial relationship - failed mainly because of the parents' prejudices), "The Devil" (the one that inspired me to pick up this collection, since apparently the Animal Collective song "La Rapet" was inspired by it), "Idle Beauty" and "The Horla", among others.

[Graychin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of Maupassant’s stories collected here are too cynical and violent to sustain the comparison that some make to Chekhov. Maupassant is more interested in sketching society in its various aspects than in sketching individual souls. Many of his characters are simply levers to move the plot: the point is in the anecdote and the uncomplimentary – sometimes horrifying – things it says about people in general.

That said, there are exceptions, and the best of Maupassant's tales are really special. Stories like “Boule de Suif” and “Miss Harriet” are perfect creations and by themselves might have earned him a reputation as a master of the form.