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    Guy de Maupassant's Tales of Insanity - A Collection of Short Stories
    Guy de Maupassant's Tales of Insanity - A Collection of Short Stories
    Guy de Maupassant's Tales of Insanity - A Collection of Short Stories
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    Guy de Maupassant's Tales of Insanity - A Collection of Short Stories

    By Guy de Maupassant

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    These early works by Guy de Maupassant were originally published in the 1880's. As a collection of short stories, this represents Maupassant's tales of insanity, and includes 'Bertha', 'Mademoiselle Cocotte', 'A Tress of Hair', 'Clair De Lune', and many other titles. Guy de Maupassant was born in 1850 at the Château de Miromesnil, near Dieppe, France. He came from a prosperous family, but when Maupassant was eleven, his mother risked social disgrace by trying to secure a legal separation from her husband. After the split, Maupassant lived with his mother till he was thirteen, and inherited her love of classical literature. In 1880, Maupassant published his first - and, according to many, his best - short story, entitled 'Boule de Suif' ('Ball of Fat'). It was an instant success. He went on to be extremely prolific during the 1880s, working methodically to produce up to four volumes of short fiction every year. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateMar 31, 2016
    ISBN9781473360280
    Guy de Maupassant's Tales of Insanity - A Collection of Short Stories
    Author

    Guy de Maupassant

    Guy de Maupassant was a French writer and poet considered to be one of the pioneers of the modern short story whose best-known works include "Boule de Suif," "Mother Sauvage," and "The Necklace." De Maupassant was heavily influenced by his mother, a divorcée who raised her sons on her own, and whose own love of the written word inspired his passion for writing. While studying poetry in Rouen, de Maupassant made the acquaintance of Gustave Flaubert, who became a supporter and life-long influence for the author. De Maupassant died in 1893 after being committed to an asylum in Paris.

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      Book preview

      Guy de Maupassant's Tales of Insanity - A Collection of Short Stories - Guy de Maupassant

      1.png

      Guy de Maupassant’s Tales of Insanity

      A Collection of Short Stories

      Copyright © 2016 Read Books Ltd.

      This book is copyright and may not be

      reproduced or copied in any way without

      the express permission of the publisher in writing

      British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      Contents

      Guy De Maupassant

      A Parricide

      A Stroll

      A Tress of Hair

      Bertha

      Clair De Lune

      Denis

      Madame Hermet

      Mademoiselle Cocotte

      The Inn

      Guy De Maupassant

      Henri-René-Albert-Guy de Maupassant was born in 1850 at the Château de Miromesnil, near Dieppe, France. He came from a prosperous family, but when Maupassant was eleven, his mother risked social disgrace by trying to secure a legal separation from her husband. After the split, Maupassant lived with his mother till he was thirteen, and inherited her love of classical literature, especially Shakespeare. Upon entering high school, he met the great author Gustave Flaubert, and despite being something of an unruly student proved himself as a good scholar, delighting in poetry and theatre.

      Not long after he graduated from college in 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and Maupassant enlisted voluntarily. Afterwards, he moved to Paris, where he spent ten years as a clerk in the Navy Department, and began to write fiction under the guidance of Flaubert. At Flaubert’s home he met a number of distinguished authors, including Émile Zola and Ivan Turgenev. In 1878, Maupassant became a contributing editor of several major newspapers, including Le Figaro, Gil Blas, Le Gaulois and l’Écho de Paris, writing fiction in his spare time.

      In 1880, Maupassant published his first – and, according to many, his best – short story, entitled ‘Boule de Suif’ (‘Ball of Fat’). It was an instant success. He went on to be extremely prolific during the 1880s, working methodically to produce up to four volumes of short fiction every year. In 1883 and 1885 respectively, Maupassant published Une Vie (A Woman’s Life) and Bel-Ami, both of which rank among his best-known works. In 1887, by then a very famous and very wealthy literary figure, he published what is widely regarded as his finest novel, Pierre et Jean.

      As well as being a well-known opponent of the construction of the Eiffel Tower, Maupassant was a solitary, withdrawn man with an aversion to public life. In his later years, as a result of the syphilis he had contracted earlier in life, he developed a powerful fear of death and became deeply paranoid. In early 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat, and was committed to a private asylum in Paris. He died here some eighteen months later, aged 42. He penned his own epitaph: I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing. Some years later, in his autobiography, Friedrich Nietzsche called Maupassant one of the stronger race, a genuine Latin to whom I am particularly attached.

      A Parricide

      The lawyer had presented a plea of insanity. How could anyone explain this strange crime otherwise?

      One morning, in the grass near Chatou, two bodies had been found, a man and a woman, well known, rich, no longer young and married since the preceding year, the woman having been a widow for three years before.

      They were not known to have enemies; they had not been robbed. They seemed to have been thrown from the roadside into the river, after having been struck, one after the other, with a long iron spike.

      The investigation revealed nothing. The boatmen, who had been questioned, knew nothing. The matter was about to be given up, when a young carpenter from a neighboring village, Georges Louis, nicknamed the Bourgeois, gave himself up.

      To all questions he only answered this:

      I had known the man for two years, the woman for six months. They often had me repair old furniture for them, because I am a clever workman.

      And when he was asked:

      Why did you kill them?

      He would obstinately answer:

      I killed them because I wanted to kill them.

      They could get nothing more out of him.

      This man was undoubtedly an illegitimate child, put out to nurse and then abandoned. He had no other name than Georges Louis, but as on growing up he became particularly intelligent, with the good taste and native refinement which his acquaintances did not have, he was nicknamed the Bourgeois, and he was never called otherwise. He had become remarkably clever in the trade of a carpenter, which he had taken up. He was also said to be a socialist fanatic, a believer in communistic and nihilistic doctrines, a great reader of bloodthirsty novels, an influential political agitator and a clever orator in the public meetings of workmen or of farmers.

      His lawyer had pleaded insanity.

      Indeed, how could one imagine that this workman should kill his best customers, rich and generous (as he knew), who in two years had enabled him to earn three thousand francs (his books showed it)? Only one explanation could be offered: insanity, the fixed idea of the unclassed individual who reeks vengeance on two bourgeois, on all the bourgeoisie, and the lawyer made a clever allusion to this nickname of The Bourgeois, given throughout the neighborhood to this poor wretch. He exclaimed:

      "Is this irony not enough to unbalance the mind of this poor wretch, who has neither father nor mother? He is an ardent republican. What am I saying? He even belongs to the same political party, the members of which, formerly shot or exiled by the government, it now welcomes with open arms this party to which arson is a principle and murder an ordinary occurrence.

      "These gloomy doctrines, now applauded in public meetings, have ruined this man. He has heard republicans—even women, yes, women—ask for the blood of M. Gambetta, the blood of M. Grevy; his weakened mind gave way; he wanted blood, the blood of a bourgeois!

      It is not he whom you should condemn, gentlemen; it is the Commune!

      Everywhere could be heard murmurs of assent. Everyone felt that the lawyer had won his case. The prosecuting attorney did not oppose him.

      Then the presiding judge asked the accused the customary question:

      Prisoner, is there anything that you wish to add to your defense?

      The man stood up.

      He was a short, flaxen blond, with calm, clear, gray eyes. A strong, frank, sonorous voice came from this frail-looking boy and, at the first words, quickly changed the opinion which had been formed of him.

      He spoke loud in a declamatory manner, but so distinctly that every word could be understood in the farthest corners of the big hall:

      "Your honor, as I do not wish to go to an insane asylum, and as I even prefer death to that, I will tell everything.

      "I killed this man and this woman because they were my parents.

      "Now, listen, and judge me.

      "A woman, having given birth to a

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