Questions tagged [guy-de-maupassant]
For questions about the works of Guy de Maupassant and his life as a writer. Use this tag with the [french-literature] tag.
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Identification of a Maupassant short story where a young man is upset by the past infidelities of his mistress
In a short story by Maupassant, a young man is upset by the past infidelities of his mistress, a rather paradoxical situation since he came much later after the infidelities (and somehow benefited ...
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Which Maupassant short stories are set during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870?
I read somewhere that Maupassant wrote ten short stories on the 1870 war between France and Prussia. I know "Boule de suif", "Deux amis", "Un duel", "Madame Sauvage&...
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Short story, 19th century: French country priest and devil exchange subjectivities
I am looking for a 19th century short story. I thought it was written by Guy de Maupassant, but didn't find it. A French country priest starts having vivid dreams that he is a diabolical courtier in ...
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42 views
Did Maupassant and Richepin know each other?
One of the first questions in the Guy de Maupassant reading challenge was Political backdrop to “The Lancer's Wife” (Franco-Prussian War)?. After I was unable to find the story in French, it turned ...
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How did Maupassant's contemporaries respond to his play Musotte?
As I mentioned in an earlier question, it is a little-known fact that Maupassant did not only write narrative prose but also plays.
The French Wikipedia article lists several plays by Maupassant:
...
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51 views
Did the Eiffel Tower feature in any of Maupassant's stories or novels?
Guy de Maupassant wrote almost all of his fiction during a single decade: the 1880s. This was also the decade that saw the construction of the Eiffel Tower, namely in the years 1887-1889. The ...
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15 views
How did Maupassant's contemporaries respond to his play Une répétition?
Guy de Maupassant is best known as an author of short stories and novels. It is less well known that he also wrote plays. The English Wikipedia article about the author only mentions his early comedy ...
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23 views
Was Maupassant's interest in madness and the supernatural linked to his own mental health?
The French publisher Gallimard has a short biography of Guy de Maupassant on its website. The last lines read,
Vers 1885, Maupassant ressent les premiers symptômes de la maladie nerveuse qui l'...
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How did contemporary female readers respond to the sexual violence in the Contes de la Bécasse?
In Maupassant's short story That Pig of a Morin / Ce cochon de Morin,
the narrator, Labarbe, says to a woman he finds very attractive (emphasis mine),
Parce que vous êtes une des plus belles ...
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12 views
Did Maupassant adapt the style and content of his stories to the newspapers that published them?
Guy de Maupassant published his short stories and novellas in newspapers and periodicals such as Le Figaro, Gil Blas, Le Gaulois and L'Écho de Paris before they were published in book form. Le Figaro ...
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203 views
What is the nature of the relationship between Madeleine and the Comte de Vaudrec in Bel-Ami?
In Maupassant's novel Bel-Ami the Comte de Vaudrec is a wealthy member of the nobility who comes to dine at the Forestiers' home every Monday evening. After Madeleine's husband Charles Forestier has ...
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Is Lambert-Sarrazin's moustache speech in Bel-Ami an allusion to a real speech?
The beginning of Chapter V in Part Two of Maupassant's novel Bel-Ami tells us about political discussions regarding the French colonisation of North Africa. One of the members of Parliament (the Third ...
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103 views
In Maupassant's Bel-Ami, why would it be compromising for a magistrate to have been in (the) mixed committees?
In the second chapter of Part Two of Maupassant's novel Bel-Ami, Georges Duroy's wife turns out to have interesting connections that allow the couple to write newspaper articles that can make or break ...
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172 views
What does it mean to have teeth in the English style?
In Chapter VI of Maupassant's novel Bel-Ami, the journalist Robert de Varenne describes the Baroness de Livar as follows (emphasis added):
Une grande sèche, soixante ans, frisons faux, dents à l'...
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Is Maupassant referring to a ranking of duellists or shooters that existed in late nineteenth-century France?
In Chapter VII of the first part of Maupassant's novel Bel-Ami, the main character, Georges Duroy, is insulted by another journalist.
The disagreement escalates and leads to a duel using pistols. ...
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What is so Balzacian about Mr. Walter's words to Mr. Montelin in Maupassant's Bel-Ami?
In the first few chapters of Maupassant's novel Bel-Ami, the main character, Georges Duroy, is learning the ropes of journalism. In Chapter IV of Part I, he accompanies the journalist nicknamed Saint-...
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What is the difference between souteneur and proxénète in Maupassant's Bel-Ami?
In the first chapters of Guy de Maupassant's novel Bel-Ami, the main character, Georges Duroy, is trying to learn the craft of journalism.
The end of the book's fourth chapter tells us that he meets ...
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265 views
What does it mean to “unmoor criticism”?
The introduction by Pol Neveux to the complete short stories of Guy de Maupassant (the edition that's on Project Gutenberg - I couldn't pin down its exact details) says the following about the article ...
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227 views
Which short stories are falsely attributed to Guy de Maupassant, and why?
Thanks to @GarethRees's sleuthing and editing, I just learned that several French short stories found in the Project Gutenberg version of the "Entire Original Maupassant Short Stories" are in fact not ...
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What political leanings are being described for Monsieur Carre-Lamadon?
I've just begun reading the complete short stories of Guy de Maupassant, starting with one of his most famous, "Boule de Suif" (variously translated as "Dumpling", "Butterball", etc.) In an early ...
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Why did Madame Roland confess to Jean that he is the legitimate son of Maréchal instead of Pierre?
Reading Pierre et Jean, we know that Pierre is the legitimate son of Maréchal yet Madame Roland confessed to Jean instead that he is his true son. Why is this the case?
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Why did the waiter send Varajou where he did?
In Guy de Maupassant's short story "The Wrong House" (available on Project Gutenberg along with all of Guy de Maupassant's short stories), Quartermaster Varajou wishes to find a brothel, and asks a ...
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Why and how did the orphan kill his adoptive mother?
While seeking the answer to a story-identification question the other day, I got sucked into a collection of Guy de Maupassant's short stories. (Have fun!) One of them, "The Orphan", is ...
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In de Maupassant's Two Friends, why does the colonel allow the two men to go into a warzone?
In Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant, the two men wish to go fishing in a warzone and are allowed to do so by the colonel who controls the checkpoint between the safety of Paris and the warzone outside ...
