The Works of Guy de Maupassant Volume 5

How is this book unique? Font adjustments & biography included Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated About The Works of Guy de Maupassant - Volume 5 by Guy de Maupassant Guy de Maupassant was a French writer remembered as a master of the short story form and as a representative of the naturalist school of writers who depicted human lives and destinies and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms. Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert and his stories are characterized by economy of style and efficient effortless dénouements (outcomes). Many are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s describing the futility of war and the innocent civilians who caught up in events beyond their control are permanently changed by their experiences. He wrote some 300 short stories six novels three travel books and one volume of verse. His first published story Boule de Suif (Ball of Fat 1880) is often considered his masterpiece. Guy de Maupassant was born 5 August 1850 at the Château de Miromesnil (Castle Miromesnil near Dieppe in the Seine-Inférieure (now Seine-Maritime) department in France. He was the first son of Laure Le Poittevin and Gustave de Maupassant both from prosperous bourgeois families. When Maupassant was 11 and his brother Hervé was five his mother an independent-minded woman risked social disgrace to obtain a legal separation from her husband. After the separation Laure Le Poittevin kept her two sons. With the father's absence Maupassant's mother became the most influential figure in the young boy's life. She was an exceptionally well-read woman and was very fond of classical literature particularly Shakespeare. Until the age of thirteen Guy happily lived with his mother at Étretat in the Villa des Verguies where between the sea and the luxuriant countryside he grew very fond of fishing and outdoor activities. At age thirteen his mother next placed her two sons as day boarders in a private school the Institution Leroy-Petit in Rouen—the Institution Robineau of Maupassant's story La Question du Latin—for classical studies. From his early education he retained a marked hostility to religion and to judge from verses composed around this time he deplored the ecclesiastical atmosphere its ritual and discipline. Finding the place to be unbearable he finally got himself expelled in his next-to-last year.