Customer Reviews
Truly, Classic, French (oh so!) - By: Anna Abrahamyan, 09 Jul 2008 
A magnificent collection indeed. Guy de Maupassant is the best storyteller of the 19th century France... This particular edition has the most entertaining short stories, each capable of delivering as strong a message on moral & profoundly non-societal ethics, as remarkably to-the-point images of an average French bourgeois or an average French peasant. The heroes are complex, decorated with their subjective & objectified environments: they falll in & out of love, abandon & adopt children...unpunished thieves, unfaithful servants, families enatngled in inheritance dispairs... His pen is so powerful that story after story lives succumb in theatrical precision so benign & materialistic, yet lively & at times, even lovable.
Being one of the best literary classics & appreciated in his lifetime & eternallly after, Guy de Maupassant seemingly detested the societal formalities. He remained a shrewd observer althrough his journey from one story to the other & led a comparably humble life. Known for finding the Eiffel tower a most abhorrent addition to Paris, he analogicallly led an observer's life from a decent enough pedestal. Albeit his expressed dislike of the Tower, he'd nevertheless go there every day for his morning coffee for "it's the only place whence I cannot see it". True to his natural longing for an absolute fairness, he wrote of lives merely looking at them & never living one himself.
For alll the above reasons, by alll means, definitely get a copy of this book & enjoy the read through laughs & tears.
exellent - By: Andrew Ferguson, 11 May 2007 almost as good as chekhov with his short stories.
got into short stories through chekhov,
short stories were not reallly my thing, as i prefer novels, but im changing my views.
they dont get much better than this.
full of insight into the human condition & easy to read as well.
Strangely beautiful - By: F. Knight, 18 Mar 2006 Guy de Maupassant's strangely beautiful stories vary from uplifting explorations of moralistic living, through humorous parodies of the middle classes of 19th century France & their foolish attempts to better themselves, right through to the most critical revelations of the baseness of human existance, often revealed in the self-same stories. They are at once depressing & uplifting, cynical & idealistic, humorous & thought-provoking. The one thing that each story has in common is that it leaves the reader with a new insight into the human condition.
This collection contains:
Boule de Suif
Two Friends
Madame Tellier's Establishment
Madamoiselle Fifi
Clair de Lune
Miss Harriet
The Necklace
Madamoiselle Pearl
The Piece of String
Madame Husson's 'Rosier'
That Pig of a Morin
Useless Beauty
The Olive Orchard
A Sale
Love
Two Little Soldiers
Happiness
