Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893)

Henri-René-Albert-Guy de Maupassant, an author of the naturalistic school, is called one of the fathers of the modern short story and his country's greatest short story writer.

He came from an aristocratic background and spent his childhood in Normandy. He wrote poetry in childhood. In 1869, he joined his brother in Paris and began studying law, but at the outbreak of the Franco-Purssian War, he enlisted in the army. From 1872 to 1880, he worked as a civil servant, first at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, then at the Ministry of Education. He became a protégé of Gustave Flaubert and was a contributing editor for several leading newspapers such as Le Figaro and Le Gaulois. De Maupassant made his official poetry debut in 1880 and one of his poems was included in an anthology edited by Emile Zola. During the 1880s, de Maupassant wrote about 300 short stories, plus six novels, three travel books, and a volume of poetry. His best-known story is perhaps "The Necklace" ("La Parure"), first published in 1884. He had contracted syphilis in his twenties, and the disease caused increasing mental disorder; in 1892, he tried to commit suicide and was committed to a private asylum, where he died.