The Necklace and Other Short Stories {Dover Thrift Editions}

What a great short story writer de Maupassant is – just delicious. His style is concise with every sentence working towards the story’s conclusion. Characters are so vividly described, the social scene and its tensions are exquisitely captured, and irony is everpresent. The topics range widely and together they present a detailed picture of life in northern France in the 1890’s. His close observation of contemporary social life and social class have much in common with Balzac and Flaubert.

I hadn't read any of Guy de Maupassant's work previously (that I recall), but I picked this up at a used bookstore late in November and grabbed it as a "classical" read to dive into. Every story was entertaining, but the final story, "The Horla," which was a ghost story/haunting of sorts, was by far the best. It was very different from any of the other stories eight stories and being that the order of the stories was by the year they were written, I feel I have to investigate and see if Maupassant wrote any more supernatural tales. The descent into madness is a well-worn path....today.... but in 1887 the predecessors were certainly fewer. The other stories often had a handful of characters, but they all seemed so well-developed even show more within the brief confines of stories only running a dozen pages or so. There's a reason this book has been republished over the years. show less

The French author Guy de Maupassant is considered one of the founding fathers of the modern short story. This collection includes such classics as "The Necklace" as well as "Ball-of-Fat" ("Boule de Suif"). The settings of Maupassant's stories range from a hungry carriageful of passengers on the road during the Franco-Prussian War to a mysteriously religious woman enchanted by an artist's painting; from poor families in Normandy trying to make ends meet to a man discovering he is haunted by a supernatural being who lives only on water and milk. Some recurring themes spring up in several of the stories, such as the profession and morals of a prostitute, which seemed to fascinate Maupassant.

Maupassant's detailed descriptions of people and show more places as well as his complex sentences and prolonged settings of the scene may put off some readers who would prefer the more postmodern, simplified method of relating a story. However, this would no doubt kill off the mood of the stories that is created through the sophisticated, polished use of language as well as the inevitable tragic twists, often embellished with black humour.

Original review show less

9 stories from 1880 to 1889

Not my type of read just for school


NO REVIEW TO BE GIVEN DUE TO MY PREFERENCES.



FINISHED: JANUARY 06,2015

O Colar é a história de Mathilde Loisel, a jovem esposa de um funcionário júnior em dificuldades em um escritório do governo em Paris. Ela anseia por tudo o que a riqueza possa comprar: posição social, festas e roupas bonitas. Quando ela e seu marido são convidados para um baile importante, seu orgulho a impele a pedir emprestado um colar valioso. Seu triunfo no baile se transforma em desespero quando ela descobre que o colar sumiu. Em vez de admitir a perda, Mathilde e seu marido compram uma duplicata exata e passam a vida se privando, trabalhando em trabalhos braçais. A trágica ironia da peça ocorre quando Mathilde descobre que o colar original era uma imitação barata!