A Selection from the Writings of Guy De Maupassant, Vol. I

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

593

Title

A Selection from the Writings of Guy De Maupassant, Vol. I

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

This collection presents twenty-seven short stories by Guy de Maupassant, exploring the tragedy and comedy of life through vivid realism. Featuring tales like "A Family" and "Bellflower," the volume captures human frailty, social satire, and intense emotion with a tone that oscillates between dark pessimism and robust vitality.

Summary up to 500 words

Guy de Maupassant's *A Selection from the Writings of Guy De Maupassant, Vol. I* offers a stark dissection of existence, revealing how fleeting joy often transforms into enduring misery. The volume is anchored by two contrasting yet thematically linked stories: "A Family" and "Bellflower." In "A Family," the narrator revisits his old friend Simon Radevin fifteen years after their parting in Paris. Simon has retreated to a provincial life, surrounded by a large brood of children and an elderly, paralyzed grandfather. The dinner scene serves as a microcosm for the story's central tragedy: the family derives cruel amusement from the grandfather's grotesque gluttony. While the old man trembles with hunger, desperate for simple pleasures like sweet rice-cream, his descendants force-feed him only tiny morsels under the guise of health concerns. They laugh at his slobbering and futile attempts to reach the food, prioritizing trivial anxieties over granting him dignity or satisfaction. The narrator watches in horror as ethics and logic are abandoned; the family preserves the grandfather's life merely to continue the spectacle of his impotent greed, illustrating how mundane reality crushes human compassion. In "Bellflower," the tone shifts from social satire to romantic idealism and its inevitable collapse. The narrator recalls Mother Bellflower, a tall, bearded seamstress with a profound heart who once comforted him in her chilly linen room. Years later, the family encounters two boating men at a riverside restaurant. One of these men, Henri, invites the women for a row on the Seine. Amidst the heat and wine, an intimate connection forms between Henri and the daughter, Henriette. They retreat to a secluded thicket where they listen to a nightingale, sharing a moment of poetic tenderness that seems to transcend their mundane surroundings. However, the idyll shatters when Henri kisses Henriette. Instead of mutual passion, she reacts with surprise and anger, and both retreat in confusion, feeling like irreconcilable enemies. The story concludes with a melancholy realization of the fleeting nature of such idealism. Two months later, Henri learns that Henriette has married Henri's companion, leaving Henri to revisit their secret spot alone. He finds her sitting sadly beside her new husband, highlighting how romantic dreams are quickly nullified by the cruel plans of egoism and the mundane constraints of social reality.

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Categories

• Short Stories
• Fiction