Pierre and Jean

This novel opens with a family outing. The outing is uneventful, but we learn a lot about the characters. The father is a silly old man, harmless but not to be taken seriously. The mother is serene and kind. Her two adult sons adore her. The sons, Pierre and Jean, also love each other, but are a bit competitive.

When the family returns home, they learn that a wealthy family friend, Marechal, has died and has left his entire estate to the younger son, Jean. At first, Pierre is jealous in a way that might be expected in these circumstances, but his feelings soon develop into something much more sinister--he begins to suspect that Jean may have been Marechal's son, the result of an illicit affair between their mother and Marechal. "It was show more no longer jealousy that made him seek an answer, nor the rather unworthy but natural envy he knew was hidden inside him and that he had been fighting for three days, but a terror of an appalling thing. Terror of believing that his brother Jean was the son of this man."

There follows a psychological game of cat and mouse between Pierre and his mother, of which his father and Jean remain blissfully ignorant for the most part. There is very little action, and most of the narration takes place in Pierre's mind. This is a masterful work. De Maupassant is able to convey so much in so view words, and on such a small stage. Highly recommended. show less

304 books ago, I reviewed Bel Ami, my first Maupassant novel and, coincidentally, the one he wrote just before this one. Thankfully, although it still deals with the worst of our fallen nature, at least you have some sympathy and understanding for the characters involved. With Bel Ami, I just wanted to punch the protagonist in the face.

Pierre and Jean are brothers, young men on their verge of finding their ways in the world. The underlying frictions caused by their very different natures rupture when one of them becomes the sole beneficiary of the heavily-laden will of a fairly obscure old friend.

It’s not just the brothers who have a hard time interpreting this injustice; the event also threatens to destroy the entire family as show more various skeletons are let loose from their closets to redefine relationships in unexpected ways.

Maupassant can definitely write and he does a very good job in what is a very short novel of constructing the characters with enough substance that the realism comes across quite forcefully. You find yourself siding with pretty much everyone except the father and that’s only because he seems too reflective to grasp what’s really happening.

In writing this way, Maupassant cleverly engages your sympathies and challenges you to evaluate your response to the moral dilemma which subsequently confronts you when the truth is revealed. That’s clever and, at the time it was written, would have created far more impact than in our much more liberal days. It’s a great example of what the novel is for: a portal to see our very own selves. show less

A sibling rivalry between two brothers gets worse when one is named sole heir in a will by a family friend. The novel explores jealousy, 19th century honor, and buried family secrets. There are moments of brilliance, such as the group’s outing to the beach to hunt for shrimp, but I think Maupassant would have been more successful if he had further tightened up this novel into a short story.

Just this quote, on love lost:
“Ah, remorse! remorse! It must have tortured her long ago in the early days, then faded as everything does. She would certainly have wept for her misdeeds and then she had gradually forgotten. Have not all women, every one of them, this gift of prodigious forgetfulness which enables them scarcely to recognize after a show more few years the man to whom they have given their lips and their whole body to kiss? The kiss strikes like lightning, love pass over like a storm, then life clears again like the sky and goes back to where it was before. Does anyone remember a cloud?” show less

Set in Le Havre, France, in the 19th century, this is a story of sibling rivalry. Younger brother Jean inherits the estate of a family friend. Elder brother Pierre becomes jealous of Jean’s inheritance. Pierre obsesses over why he did not share in this good fortune. Family secrets unfold. I am sure this book would have been scandalous in 1888, when it was first published, but in today’s world it seems rather tame. The version I read includes an introduction about literary criticism, which I found fascinating.

The constellation of two half-brothers from two fathers, differently aged, one with a big inheritance, the other with nothing, both falling in love with the same girl, ever fascinated me. Peter and John came to me in the romantic stage of adolescence. I was a bit disappointed, that the girl decides upon the rich boy, and that the poor fellow without a whimper comes second place. Before he run away to sea he should have given his brother at the very least a good smacking.

This story is set in the Normandy coast land and features a look at the family of brothers Pierre and Jean. Pierre is the older brother and is 30 described as dark, doesn't know what he wants and has started one career after another and currently is now a doctor but he has not established a career yet. He is ill tempered but very fond of his mother. He also is fond of knowledge and intelligence. Jean is 25 year old and fair haired and calm. He is a lawyer and has not launched his career either. Mother is Louise and she is married to Gerome Roland and former jeweler who is a sailor wanta be. Roland is impervious to everything and admires nothing more than leisure. In addition, there is the widow Miss Rosemilly, 23 y/o woman who is show more described as strong and agile with a wealth of her own. She is also described as a hunter and certainly is better at hunting prawns that Jean.

The older brother has always been jealous of his younger brother but this is exasperated when Jean becomes the sole heir to a family friend's estate. This is a story of jealousy and the harm that can come from family secrets and jealousies.

A couple of quotes that I liked;
"I'm taking lessons, learning how a man prepares himself to be a cuckold." and
"How ugly life is! If for once you find a little sweetness in it you are wicked to enjoy it and pay very heavily for it later.

I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Normandy coastline, the homeland of the author show less

Pierre and Jean are brothers who have just finished their degrees in medicine and law when they receive the news that a family friend has died and made Jean the sole heir of a decent sum of money. Pierre contains his jealously relatively successfully, but he is not able to contain his feelings when others suggest that there must have been a reason one brother was favored over the other. Pierre notices that there is a strong physical resemblance between Jean and his benefactor while the brothers look nothing alike. Pierre’s suspicions of his mother’s infidelity weigh so heavily on his mind that he is unable to think of anything else until he confronts her and Jean.

I really liked this novel. The pace moved nicely, and the story was show more compelling. I hadn’t read Maupassant before, and now I’m looking forward to reading more of his work. show less