Guy de Maupassant was a 19th-century French novelist and short-story writer. He was a well-versed writer and was famous for his short stories. His stories are short and efficient which brought him fame. He portrayed the lives and destinies of humans in a more pessimistic way. He mainly wrote about the Franco-Prussian War and its effects on the lives of the people.
He was born in an upper-class family. In his early school days, he took a keen interest in literary writings and composed some poems as well. In 1867, he came under the mentorship of French novelist Gustave Flaubert, who advised him to opt for Law and study it. However, he could not pursue his studies because of the war in which he participated as a cop.
When the war ended, he came back to Paris where he came under the tutelage of many Realist and Naturalist writers who provided him with a path to pursue. From then on, Maupassant formally began his literary career and wrote enormously.
His writings gave him financial support and he received great acclaim from his contemporaries. Leo Tolstoy acknowledged his first novel as “an excellent novel, not only incomparably the best novel by Maupassant but almost the best French novel since Hugo’s Les Miserables“.
Guy de Maupassant’s Biography
Henri-Rene-Albert-Guy de Maupassant was born in a wealthy family on August 5, 1870, at the Castle Miromesnil, near Dieppe in France. He became the first child of his wealthy parents, Laure Le Poittevin and Gustave de Maupassant.
It was his mother who convinced his father to acquire the privilege to use his correct family name “de Maupassant” rather than “Maupassant”, as they belong to a noble family after they tied the knot in 1846.
The nobility to their family came through one of Gustave de Maupassant’s relatives, Jean-Baptiste Maupassant, who was given the rank of a nobleman in 1752. He worked as a secretary to the King. Guy’s father applied to obtain the right in the court and succeeded in earning the right to use “de Maupassant” in place of “Maupassant” as his last name. When Guy came to the world in 1850, “de Maupassant” became his surname.
Maupassant’s parents separated when he was 11 years old and his brother Herve was just five. His father treated his mother, who was a free-spirited lady, violently so she applied for legitimate separation not considering that society will blame her. However, she fought for her kids and won the right to keep them with her once she got separation. Afterward, Laure would become an impactful figure in Maupassant’s life.
She was a scholarly woman herself and adored reading classical literature, Shakespeare in particular. Until thirteen, Guy enjoyed a lavish life living with his mother at Etretat, in the Villa des Verguies. He enjoyed his stay there and loved fishing as well as indulging in other activities.
Later, he was admitted to the Institution Leroy-Petit, in Rouen to study classics along with his brother. He grew hostile towards religion in his early school days and hated clerical emphasis on rituals and discipline. Guy did not enjoy his stay in the school and was dismissed from the school in his penultimate year.
He got admission in a junior high school in 1867. He became acquainted with his mother’s friend and a famous writer, Gustave Falubert, at Croisset. In the autumn of the following year, he went to Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen, where he took an interest in poetry and took a significant part in stage performances.
In October 1868, as eighteen years old, he rescued Algernon Charles Swinburne, a renowned poet, on the seashore of Etretat.
When he graduated from college in 1870, he immediately went to the Franco-Prussian war and participated as a cop in it. The following year, he abandoned Normandy and went to Paris for a clerical job in the Navy Department. During his tenure as a clerk, he would spend his leisure time boating on the Seine.
Gustave Flaubert had a great influence on him. He became his mentor and introduced him to new avenues to thrive. He helped Maupassant try his luck in literature and also getting a job as a journalist. Furthermore, Flaubert introduced him to Emile Zola and Ivan Turgenev, a Russian novelist, and to other realist and naturalist writers.
In 1878, he got posted in the Ministry of Public Instruction and acted as an editor to many renowned newspapers such as Gil Blas, l’Echo de Paris, Le Gaulois, and Le Figaro. He began writing short stories and novels in his free time.
His first great work “Boule de Suif” brought him immediate success when it first published in 1880. His mentor Flaubert applauded his effort and hailed it as “a masterpiece that will endure.” With this piece of fiction, Maupassant started writing about the Franco-Prussian war and he continued writing short stories that were set in the war.
Maupassant came to the fore as a writer in the decade from 1880 to 1891. He got some recognition in this decade producing great fictional work. He wrote in a well-organized manner and would publish upto four volumes yearly. He became rich with the help of his aptitude and pragmatic business sense.
In 1881, he succeeded in publishing his first collection of short stories entitled La Maison Tellier. The collection got great fame and within a couple of years, twelve editions of it were available in the market. Two years later in 1883, he completed Une Vie, his first novel.
It was also an immediate success and within a year 25000 copies of the novel were sold. The novel was translated into English under the title of A Woman’s Life.
Havard, his proofreader, paid him in advance for writing more and he wrote nonstop. Writing continuously, he composed a novel Pierre et Jean considered by many as his masterpiece. With the passage of time, he started hating his society more and began to live a lonely life. However, he loved traveling and went on foreign travels widely.
He visited Italy, England, Sicily, Brittany, etc and returned from each trip with a new volume. He used his personal sailboat “Bel-Ami”. During his trips, he befriended literary people like Alexandre Dumas and Hippolyte Taine. Alexandre Dumas loved him like a father and Maupassant held Hippolyte Taine in high regard.
Maupassant, along with other prominent writers, was against the construction of the Eiffel Tower. He would usually try to avoid seeing the tower and was among the figures who wrote a letter to the Minister of Public Works protesting against its construction.
Maupassant also composed under different pen names like Maufrigneuse, Guy de Valmont, and Joseph Prunier in the initial years of his writing career.
In the final years of his life, he loved to remain lonely and in solitude. He also became paranoiac because of syphilis, a fatal ailment that had attacked him while he was young. The illness may have been innate because his brother also had the same illness.
On January 2, 1892, Maupassant tried to cut his life short but failed. Later, he was admitted to a mental hospital of Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris, where he breathed his last on July 6, 1893
Guy de Maupassant’s Writing Style
Guy de Maupassant was a prolific short story writer who dealt with diverse themes in his fictional writings. He openly wrote about the class difference prevalent in society. He also wrote about the impact of the Franco-Prussian war upon the people associated with it. His pessimistic approach towards life enabled him to depict society as it was and he did not give his readers an idealized picture of the society.
Issue of Class Difference
This is a significant theme in Maupassant’s stories. Maupassant openly talks about the class conflict prevalent in society in his works. There is a huge gulf between the upper class and the lower class. The upper class enjoys a lavish life full of luxuries and comfort. On the contrary, the lower class lives a miserable life. The lower class does not afford to live a life full of comfort.
Maupassant openly talks about the gap between the classes. He criticizes the behavior of the upper class with the lower class. The elite class manipulates and oppresses the lower class. They take advantage of their poverty and want them to act according to their desires and wants. The lower class yearns for the luxurious life of the upper-class lives. This thing is evident in most of his stories especially “The Necklace”.
“The Necklace” is about a lower-class woman, Mathilde, who yearns for a luxurious life full of comfort. She tries her best to be recognized in society and does everything to achieve her goal. She abandons her poor life and strives for elevated status in society. Her fatal wish ruins her ultimately.
Eventually, she loses her charm and becomes poorer. Through the story, Maupassant highlights the impact of class conscious society on individuals who belong to the lower strata of society. Gaining elevated status in society makes an individual lose his original identity.
Maupassant’s Subject Matter
If I say that Maupassant is the child of his own society, it will not be wrong. He proves this fact by talking about ordinary issues in his writings. He does not talk about the struggles of kings and war heroes. However, his issues are related to the common lives of ordinary people.
He openly talks about the mundane issues of common people in society. He takes his subjects from everyday life and talks about the challenges a common man faces in society.
In “The Necklace” he talks about how a lower class Mathilde Loisel struggles to gain recognition in a class conscious society because of her lower-class background. He also talks about how she loses everything chasing the elevated status in society. She even loses her original identity trying to cope with class conscious society.
Moreover, in “Boule de Suif” he gives his readers an insight into how the upper class manipulates the lower class. In this short story, a prostitute is manipulated by her own countrymen for their own benefit. The rich people persuade the prostitute to share a bed with a German soldier in order to resume their journey.
The German soldier had announced earlier that they would resume their journey only if they convinced the prostitute to sleep with him. From this, Maupassant shows how rich people sacrifice the poor ones for their own advantage.
Through “Boule de Suif” Maupassant highlights the impacts of war on individuals. He shows his readers how the ravages of war make people homeless. It also makes individuals lose their integrity like the prostitute in the story. The prostitute does not let the German destroy her at first but when the people on the boat convince her, she agrees for the sack of those people.
The short story shows the real picture of the Franco-Prussian war and how it affects people. Furthermore, the story shows Maupassant’s disdain for war because it makes people lose their integrity.
Maupassant’s Pessimism
Maupassant belongs to the realist school of thought so he depicts the society as it is. He does not idealize situations and events for the sake of it. He lived in a class conscious society where social background mattered the most.
Maupassant became pessimistic when he saw people from lower-class backgrounds continuously struggling to gain elevated status in society and in turn lose their original identity.
Maupassant deals with pessimistic events and situations in many of his short stories in which his protagonists view life as miserable and useless. The main characters, in many of his stories, have a negative mindset, and are hopeless that their lives will take a good turn.
His pessimism stems from the time he spent participating in the war and seeing the evil side of humanity. Part of it comes from his own life as well. The absence of a father-like figure in his life also adds to his pessimistic view about life.
If we take the example of Mathilde Loisel from “The Necklace, we come to know that she is a lower-class woman who yearns for a luxurious life. She is not content with her present life and wants to live a comfortable life. Her lower-class background makes her hopeless about gaining elevated status in society.
She envies rich ladies but cannot stand with them side by side due to her lower background. Mathilde Loisel feels happy for a fleeting moment when she participates in an elite party but pays for that moment in her entire life. That momentary happiness ruins her life.
Just like Mathilde Loisel, there are many characters who convey the idea of Maupassant’s pessimism. Maupassant’s pessimism is Schopenhauerian and takes a negative look towards events.
Maupassant’s Realism
Maupassant’s realism stems from the fact that he depicts the events as it is. He does not idealize or romanticize the situations rather depicts them in an original manner. He openly writes about the terrible repercussions of war on humanity and raises his voice against it.
He despises the idea of war in his writings. Furthermore, he openly depicts the class conscious society of his times in his writings. He talks about how the lower class people get manipulated by the upper-class people for their own advantage.
Gustave Flaubert, a realist, and his literary mentor have a great influence on Maupassant. As a student of Flaubert, Maupassant uses his own insight and depicts the ordinary human experiences in his writings. He pays attention to the struggles faced by laymen in society and realistically depicts them.
A critic Wallace asserts “He possessed a rare ability to understand the small, almost unnoticed episodes of human experience, and to so enhancing them by his art as to make other men understand both the pettiness and the nobility of all human endeavor”.
Maupassant attentively observes the society in which he lives and gives voice to the challenges a common man faces in society through his writings. The influence of Flaubert can be seen in Maupassant depicting the realistic picture of society in his writings.
Maupassant’s Psychology
Maupassant gives his readers an insight into the psychological aspects of his characters. He not only describes them physically but mentally as well. He enters into the minds of his characters and highlights what is going on in their minds.
He gives us insight into the inner conflicts of his personas. He unfolds the psychological minds of his characters into his readers. He knows all about his characters and delves into their minds to show us what is going on.
His illness from syphilis, which he contracted in his youth, had a deep impact on him when he became old. With the passage of time, he came up with harsher realities of life and depicts them accordingly in his writings.
He becomes mentally unstable because of the disease which enables him to write about psychological and mental subjects as he experiences them personally. His illness leaves him lonely, sad, and in solitude.
In his later career, he writes about psychological subjects. He openly talks about suicide, misery, and death in his writings. He makes characters who have some psychological problems.
He depicts those characters, with the help of his personal experiences, to enable the readers to know about the struggles of a mentally unstable individual. He loves solitude and loneliness and talks about them in his writings too.
He personally faces a challenge due to madness and depicts mad characters so that he can relate them with his readers. Wallace opines, “ Maupassant was able to conceive of that little bit of madness in us all because he was a little more than “normally” mad, and his characters have that human degree of madness which gives them a reality and causes us to identify with them”.
He intermingles his personal experiences with his characters’ traits to create genuine stories.
Language Structure and Style
Maupassant’s short stories are famous for its efficiency and economy of style. The structure and style of his stories are very compact. Most of them can be read and understood easily. The language is simple and there is no use of archaic words. The sentences are concise and blunt.
The choice of words completely fits the subject matter in his stories. Maupassant uses very authentic words to convey his idea in the best possible manner. It makes a powerful impact upon the reader.
He very tactfully constructs his plots. There is a cause and effect relationship among the events. All the events and situations comfortably lead to the climax in the story and then passes that intent into the befitting ending.
The sentences are well connected and they fittingly play their role in taking the story to the desired ending. There is not a single loose thread. The sentences contribute to the overall effect in the story. The writer very tactfully makes this story powerful by the authentic use of language.
Conclusion
Maupassant is considered the master of short stories which he has written with great artistic genius. He has also written some novels but his novels have not given him much success. Maupassant is famous for his short stories.
Pasco praises his genius as a short story writer in these words, “Maupassant’s success with the short story, while his novels never quite measured up, can perhaps be attributed to his inability to handle the large number of strands involved in really fine novels.”
He is thought to be a progenitor of the modern short story. Kornelije Kvas, a renowned literary theorist, pays tribute to him in these words, “along with Chekhov, Maupassant is the greatest master of the short story in world literature. He is not a naturalist like Zola; to him, physiological processes do not constitute the basis of human actions, although the influence of the environment is manifested in his prose.
In many respects, Maupassant’s naturalism is Schopenhauerian anthropological pessimism, as he is often harsh and merciless when it comes to depicting human nature. He owes most to Flaubert, from whom he learned to use a concise and measured style and to establish a distance towards the object of narration.”