Although not one of Guy de Maupassant’s best known works, this is still a fascinating read. The madman (and in this case thrill killer) is a highly respected magistrate who sentences an innocent man to death for one of his own gruesome murders. Later, he gets an additional thrill from witnessing the poor man’s execution. The motif here is that even seemingly incorruptible members of society can descend into madness and commit the most heinous of crimes. Themes: madness, false impressions, society’s fascination with killing (especially as part of war), the undiscovered madmen among us. More…

This little known story from Guy de Maupassant is about a man and woman who meet and become friends during a long train journey. The idyllic countryside they are traveling through is in contrast to the way the woman feels. She is a wet-nurse (a woman who cares for and breast-feeds other people’s babies) and has not had a baby to her breast in the last two days. She is in great pain because of this, and the man offers to help her. In doing this, the man solves a problem of his own. More…

The question in the title of this Guy de Maupassant story could refer to two things: the blissful year the protagonist shared with his lover, or a vision he had while visiting her grave. Similarly, the feelings of emptiness and loss he experiences could be because of two things: the unexpected death of his lover, or what he learned about her death in the vision. A priest had asked if the woman was the man’s mistress. If true, is his reaction at the graveside really justified? Or could Maupassant be pointing out a shameful double standard in French society? More…

This Guy de Maupassant story involves a frugal farmer whose reputation is forever tarnished after a rival falsely accuses him of finding and failing to return a lost pocketbook. Sadly, he is the victim of a stereotype about “Norman craftiness”. No matter how much he protests that he picked up a piece of string, and even in the face of another peasant coming forward with the pocketbook, nobody will believe him. This weighs so much on the proud man’s mind that he wastes away to an early death. Themes: false accusations, stereotyping, injustice, pride, obsession with image/reputation. More…

This Guy de Maupassant story is about a beautiful woman who is unhappy with her situation in life. She has a loving husband with a secure government job, and they have enough money to hire a girl to do the harder housework. Sadly, she sees him as just a “little” clerk and dreams of being admired by richer and more important men. An invitation to a ball and loss of a borrowed necklace teach her how lucky she was, and what it means to be very poor. Themes include appearance vs. reality, class, discontent, vanity, pride, sacrifice, and suffering. More…

This tongue-in-cheek story by Guy de Maupassant could be said to reflect two English proverbs: ignorance is bliss, and money can’t buy happiness. A recently widowed man of modest means is shocked to learn that his seemingly perfect wife had been living a decadent secret life. When he discovers that her “fake” jewels are real, he quits his job, becomes a man of leisure, and remarries a “very virtuous” woman who causes him much sorrow. The story introduces several important themes: appearances (things aren’t always as they seem), infidelity, vanity, hypocrisy, French bourgeois morality, exploitation of the working class. More…

In The Devil, Guy de Maupassant adopts the unusual (for him) approach of lightening a dark story-line with some playful dialog. A heartless old washerwoman has a side job nursing fellow villagers as they approach death. She normally charges by the day, but when forced into agreeing to a flat fee she has a ‘devilish’ way of helping her patients move along sooner rather than later. The major theme is greed, as evidenced by the lengths she and other villagers will go to if they can save a penny (or in this case, a sou). Other themes: death, poverty, deceit. More…