Complete Maupassant Original Short Stories (2 page)

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THE ENTIRE ORIGINAL MAUPASSANT SHORT STORIES

by Guy de Maupassant

GUY DE MAUPASSANT ORIGINAL SHORT STORIES Translated by ALBERT M. C. McMASTER, B.A. A. E. HENDERSON, B.A. MME. QUESADA and Others

Also available in 13 individual Gutenberg Project etext files:

Short Stories V13, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#14][gm13v11.txt]3089 Short Stories V12, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#13][gm12v11.txt]3088 Short Stories V11, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#12][gm11v11.txt]3087 Short Stories V10, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#11][gm10v11.txt]3086 Short Stories V9, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#10][gm09v11.txt]3085 Short Stories V8, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#9] [gm08v11.txt]3084 Short Stories V7, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#8] [gm07v11.txt]3083 Short Stories V6, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#7] [gm06v11.txt]3082 Short Stories V5, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#6] [gm05v11.txt]3081 Short Stories V4, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#5] [gm04v11.txt]3080 Short Stories V3, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#4] [gm03v11.txt]3079 Short Stories V2, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#3] [gm02v11.txt]3078 Short Stories V1, by Guy de Maupassant [GM#2] [gm01v11.txt]3077

CONTENTS OF THE 13 VOLUMES (180 Stories)

VOLUME I.

GUY DE MAUPASSANT--A STUDY BY POL. NEVEUX

BOULE DE SUIF TWO FRIENDS THE LANCER'S WIFE THE PRISONERS TWO LITTLE SOLDIERS FATHER MILON A COUP D'ETAT LIEUTENANT LARE'S MARRIAGE THE HORRIBLE MADAME PARISSE MADEMOISELLE FIFI A DUEL

VOLUME II.

THE COLONEL'S IDEAS MOTHER SAUVAGE EPIPHANY THE MUSTACHE MADAME BAPTISTE THE QUESTION OF LATIN A MEETING THE BLIND MAN INDISCRETION A FAMILY AFFAIR BESIDE SCHOPENHAUER'S CORPSE

VOLUME III.

MISS HARRIET LITTLE LOUISE ROQUE THE DONKEY MOIRON THE DISPENSER OF HOLY WATER THE PARRICIDE BERTHA THE PATRON THE DOOR A SALE THE IMPOLITE SEX A WEDDING GIFT THE RELIC

VOLUME IV.

THE MORIBUND THE GAMEKEEPER THE STORY OF A FARM GIRL THE WRECK THEODULE SABOT'S CONFESSION THE WRONG HOUSE THE DIAMOND NECKLACE THE MARQUIS DE FUMEROL THE TRIP OF THE HORLA FAREWELL THE WOLF THE INN

VOLUME V.

MONSIEUR PARENT QUEEN HORTENSE TIMBUCTOO TOMBSTONES MADEMOISELLE PEARL THE THIEF CLAIR DE LUNE WAITER, A "BOCK" AFTER FORGIVENESS IN THE SPRING A QUEER NIGHT IN PARIS

VOLUME VI.

THAT COSTLY RIDE USELESS BEAUTY THE FATHER MY UNCLE SOSTHENES THE BARONESS MOTHER AND SON THE HAND A TRESS OF HAIR ON THE RIVER THE CRIPPLE A STROLL ALEXANDRE THE LOG JULIE ROMAINE THE RONDOLI SISTERS

VOLUME VII.

THE FALSE GEMS FASCINATION YVETTE SAMORIS A VENDETTA MY TWENTY-FIVE DAYS "THE TERROR" LEGEND OF MONT ST. MICHEL A NEW YEAR'S GIFT FRIEND PATIENCE ABANDONED THE MAISON TELLIER DENIS MY WIFE THE UNKNOWN THE APPARITION

VOLUME VIII.

CLOCHETTE THE KISS THE LEGION OF HONOR THE TEST FOUND ON A DROWNED MAN THE ORPHAN THE BEGGAR THE RABBIT HIS AVENGER MY UNCLE JULES THE MODEL A VAGABOND THE FISHING HOLE THE SPASM IN THE WOOD MARTINE ALL OVER THE PARROT A PIECE OF STRING

VOLUME IX.

TOINE MADAME HUSSON'S ROSIER THE ADOPTED SON A COWARD OLD MONGILET MOONLIGHT THE FIRST SNOWFALL SUNDAYS OF A BOURGEOIS A RECOLLECTION OUR LETTERS THE LOVE OF LONG AGO FRIEND JOSEPH THE EFFEMINATES OLD AMABLE

VOLUME X.

THE CHRISTENING THE FARMER'S WIFE THE DEVIL THE SNIPE THE WILL WALTER SCHNAFF'S ADVENTURE AT SEA MINUET THE SON THAT PIG OF A MORIN SAINT ANTHONY LASTING LOVE PIERROT A NORMANDY JOKE FATHER MATTHEW

VOLUME XI.

THE UMBRELLA BELHOMME'S BEAST DISCOVERY THE ACCURSED BREAD THE DOWRY THE DIARY OF A MAD MAN THE MASK THE PENGUINS ROCK A FAMILY SUICIDES AN ARTIFICE DREAMS SIMON'S PAPA

VOLUME XII.

THE CHILD A COUNTRY EXCURSION ROSE ROSALIE PRUDENT REGRET A SISTER'S CONFESSION COCO A DEAD WOMAN'S SECRET A HUMBLE DRAMA MADEMOISELLE COCOTTE THE CORSICAN BANDIT THE GRAVE

VOLUME XIII.

OLD JUDAS THE LITTLE CASK BOITELLE A WIDOW THE ENGLISHMEN OF ETRETAT MAGNETISM A FATHERS CONFESSION A MOTHER OF MONSTERS AN UNCOMFORTABLE BED A PORTRAIT THE DRUNKARD THE WARDROBE THE MOUNTAIN POOL A CREMATION MISTI MADAME HERMET THE MAGIC COUCH

GUY DE MAUPASSANT ORIGINAL SHORT STORIES

VOLUME I.

GUY DE MAUPASSANT--A STUDY BY POL. NEVEUX BOULE DE SUIF TWO FRIENDS THE LANCER'S WIFE THE PRISONERS TWO LITTLE SOLDIERS FATHER MILON A COUP D'ETAT LIEUTENANT LARE'S MARRIAGE THE HORRIBLE MADAME PARISSE MADEMOISELLE FIFI A DUEL

GUY DE MAUPASSANT A STUDY BY POL. NEVEUX

"I entered literary life as a meteor, and I shall leave it like a thunderbolt." These words of Maupassant to Jose Maria de Heredia on the occasion of a memorable meeting are, in spite of their morbid solemnity, not an inexact summing up of the brief career during which, for ten years, the writer, by turns undaunted and sorrowful, with the fertility of a master hand produced poetry, novels, romances and travels, only to sink prematurely into the abyss of madness and death. . . . .

In the month of April, 1880, an article appeared in the "Le Gaulois" announcing the publication of the Soirees de Medan. It was signed by a name as yet unknown: Guy de Maupassant. After a juvenile diatribe against romanticism and a passionate attack on languorous literature, the writer extolled the study of real life, and announced the publication of the new work. It was picturesque and charming. In the quiet of evening, on an island, in the Seine, beneath poplars instead of the Neapolitan cypresses dear to the friends of Boccaccio, amid the continuous murmur of the valley, and no longer to the sound of the Pyrennean streams that murmured a faint accompaniment to the tales of Marguerite's cavaliers, the master and his disciples took turns in narrating some striking or pathetic episode of the war. And the issue, in collaboration, of these tales in one volume, in which the master jostled elbows with his pupils, took on the appearance of a manifesto, the tone of a challenge, or the utterance of a creed.

In fact, however, the beginnings had been much more simple, and they had confined themselves, beneath the trees of Medan, to deciding on a general title for the work. Zola had contributed the manuscript of the "Attaque du Moulin," and it was at Maupassant's house that the five young men gave in their contributions. Each one read his story, Maupassant being the last. When he had finished Boule de Suif, with a spontaneous impulse, with an emotion they never forgot, filled with enthusiasm at this revelation, they all rose and, without superfluous words, acclaimed him as a master.

He undertook to write the article for the Gaulois and, in cooperation with his friends, he worded it in the terms with which we are familiar, amplifying and embellishing it, yielding to an inborn taste for mystification which his youth rendered excusable. The essential point, he said, is to "unmoor" criticism.

It was unmoored. The following day Wolff wrote a polemical dissertation in the Figaro and carried away his colleagues. The volume was a brilliant success, thanks to Boule de Suif. Despite the novelty, the honesty of effort, on the part of all, no mention was made of the other stories. Relegated to the second rank, they passed without notice. From his first battle, Maupassant was master of the field in literature.

At once the entire press took him up and said what was appropriate regarding the budding celebrity. Biographers and reporters sought information concerning his life. As it was very simple and perfectly straightforward, they resorted to invention. And thus it is that at the present day Maupassant appears to us like one of those ancient heroes whose origin and death are veiled in mystery.

I will not dwell on Guy de Maupassant's younger days. His relatives, his old friends, he himself, here and there in his works, have furnished us in their letters enough valuable revelations and touching remembrances of the years preceding his literary debut. His worthy biographer, H. Edouard Maynial, after collecting intelligently all the writings, condensing and comparing them, has been able to give us some definite information regarding that early period.

I will simply recall that he was born on the 5th of August, 1850, near Dieppe, in the castle of Miromesnil which he describes in Une Vie. . . .

Maupassant, like Flaubert, was a Norman, through his mother, and through his place of birth he belonged to that strange and adventurous race, whose heroic and long voyages on tramp trading ships he liked to recall. And just as the author of "Education sentimentale" seems to have inherited in the paternal line the shrewd realism of Champagne, so de Maupassant appears to have inherited from his Lorraine ancestors their indestructible discipline and cold lucidity.

His childhood was passed at Etretat, his beautiful childhood; it was there that his instincts were awakened in the unfoldment of his prehistoric soul. Years went by in an ecstasy of physical happiness. The delight of running at full speed through fields of gorse, the charm of voyages of discovery in hollows and ravines, games beneath the dark hedges, a passion for going to sea with the fishermen and, on nights when there was no moon, for dreaming on their boats of imaginary voyages.

Mme. de Maupassant, who had guided her son's early reading, and had gazed with him at the sublime spectacle of nature, put, off as long as possible the hour of separation. One day, however, she had to take the child to the little seminary at Yvetot. Later, he became a student at the college at Rouen, and became a literary correspondent of Louis Bouilhet. It was at the latter's house on those Sundays in winter when the Norman rain drowned the sound of the bells and dashed against the window panes that the school boy learned to write poetry.

Vacation took the rhetorician back to the north of Normandy. Now it was shooting at Saint Julien l'Hospitalier, across fields, bogs, and through the woods. From that time on he sealed his pact with the earth, and those "deep and delicate roots" which attached him to his native soil began to grow. It was of Normandy, broad, fresh and virile, that he would presently demand his inspiration, fervent and eager as a boy's love; it was in her that he would take refuge when, weary of life, he would implore a truce, or when he simply wished to work and revive his energies in old-time joys. It was at this time that was born in him that voluptuous love of the sea, which in later days could alone withdraw him from the world, calm him, console him.

In 1870 he lived in the country, then he came to Paris to live; for, the family fortunes having dwindled, he had to look for a position. For several years he was a clerk in the Ministry of Marine, where he turned over musty papers, in the uninteresting company of the clerks of the admiralty.

Then he went into the department of Public Instruction, where bureaucratic servility is less intolerable. The daily duties are certainly scarcely more onerous and he had as chiefs, or colleagues, Xavier Charmes and Leon Dierx, Henry Roujon and Rene Billotte, but his office looked out on a beautiful melancholy garden with immense plane trees around which black circles of crows gathered in winter.

Maupassant made two divisions of his spare hours, one for boating, and the other for literature. Every evening in spring, every free day, he ran down to the river whose mysterious current veiled in fog or sparkling in the sun called to him and bewitched him. In the islands in the Seine between Chatou and Port-Marly, on the banks of Sartrouville and Triel he was long noted among the population of boatmen, who have now vanished, for his unwearying biceps, his cynical gaiety of good-fellowship, his unfailing practical jokes, his broad witticisms. Sometimes he would row with frantic speed, free and joyous, through the glowing sunlight on the stream; sometimes, he would wander along the coast, questioning the sailors, chatting with the ravageurs, or junk gatherers, or stretched at full length amid the irises and tansy he would lie for hours watching the frail insects that play on the surface of the stream, water spiders, or white butterflies, dragon flies, chasing each other amid the willow leaves, or frogs asleep on the lily-pads.