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.
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