Maupassant, Guy de Books - Page 3

The Horla and Other Stories

Guy de Maupassant

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Editorial Review:

1887. Translated by Albert M.C. McMaster, A.E. Henderson, Mme. Quesada and Others. French author of the naturalistic school who is generally considered the greatest French short story writer. The title story of this volume contains Maupassant's most upsetting horror tale concerning madness and suicide. Contents: The Horla; Miss Harriet; Little Louise Roque; The Donkey; Moiron; The Dispenser of Holy Water; The Parricide; Bertha; The Patron; The Door; A Sale; The Impolite Sex; A Wedding Gift; The Moribund; The Gamekeeper; The Story of a Farm Girl; and The Marquis de Fumerol. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

The Dark Side: Tales of Terror and the Supernatural

Guy de Maupassant, Arnold Kellett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

supremely disturbing and genuinely frightening stuff 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

these stories go beyond your average collection of horror tales, and it isn't hard to tell that maupassant was going over the edge when he penned these. they are less focused on the supernatural than on the chilling capability the human mind has to construct terrifying illusions and reduce the most rational and cerebral man to a shivering mass. you could almost call these philosophical in that maupassant remorselessly exposes the tenuous and fragile nature of our mental health and reminds us that insanity is a potential danger for the more thoughtful and sensitive. this is personally my favorite work as far as maupassant's stuff goes, and anyone with a taste for the morbid, pessimistic or terrifying is well advised to pick this one up right away, although it is pretty rare nowadays and difficult to locate. i took it out of my local library. those who are interested in the field of philosophy should enjoy the brief but somewhat humorous tale, "the smile of schopenhauer", which amuses but at the same time inspires fear. if you're interested in abnormal psychology this is also a must read for you. the creme de la creme of horror literature.

Editorial Review:

In a new translation by Arnold Keller, all the tales of terror by Guy de Maupassant, France's greatest short story writer, are collected here in one volume. These thirty-one stories of the supernatural explore the furthest reaches of the macabre and at the same time parallel de Maupassant's own descent into madness and death.

Best Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant

Guy De Maupassant

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Imaginative and "mundane" ,then and now. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Guy De Maupassant hit a chord and in its delivery he left nothing too far fetched. All of his "stories" were "cloned" from actual everyday common ocurrences. He knew that reality was stranger than fiction, all he had to do was to pass it on, with the well seasoned ingredients of someone that had not ever lived a dull moment. He was from Normandy, my ancestors birthplace in France and I in my puberty gained access to my father's "private library" and the literary works by such an author, using a screwdriver to pick the locks, that is why I had to read the English translations to check on its contents and refresh my memory with those wonderful stories, yet said book is now in the hands of those who's failed to treasure it.

A Woman's Life

Guy De Maupassant

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The masterpiece of the naturalistic literature 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 16 people found this review helpful.

The first time I read this novel, I thought that the naturalism was bored, because there was no elan vital like Stendhal's novels. Twenty years later, I have now re-estimated it. It has no fantasy and little romance, but some important reality.

This is a story of a woman living as a falling aristocratic landowner in some French country. It may be supposed that if readers don't have the exotics against the past French country, they cannot find any significance of this novel. It is, however, not the case. While talking a woman or looking at her gestures, suddenly I have remembered some plots of this novel to find their resemblance. At the same time I have begun to wonder if she is strongly responsible and doesn't believe in love and give up almost all trivial pleasures.

The boredom of the naturalism at my adolescence has gradually turned out its applause, as I have experienced much. This novel doesn't make readers happy, but widens their ability to understand women, in particular, rural and naive girls.

Although the importance of this novel is hard to see, it should be evaluated fairly.

A Parisian Affair and Other Stories

Guy de Maupassant

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 1.0 of 5

Literary vandalism. Buy the Roger Colet translation instead. 1 out of 5 stars.
25 of 27 people found this review helpful.

Reading this new edition is like visiting a museum that has just been looted. Astonishingly, several of the very best Maupassant stories (particularly "Madame Tellier's Establishment" and "Mouche") have been deleted and replaced with facile selections like "The Necklace," which was intentionally omitted from the 1973 Roger Colet translation because it was rightly deemed inferior and unrepresentative of the author. Inexplicably, and criminally, translator Sian Miles chooses the first (again inferior and greatly truncated) version of "The Horla" rather than the classic mood-swinging, diary-entry style of the famous final published version. Additionally, "The Christening" here is benign and slight compared to the harrowing story of the same title featured in the earliest Penguin Classics collection translated by H.N.P. Sloman (a very different group of stories, but as highly recommended as the Colet). What Miles has done in essence is anaesthetize the great short story writer (perhaps second only to D.H. Lawrence) and give us Maupassant Lite.

Worst of all is the sense of biographical revisionism and political correctness that pervades this collection. In her Introduction, Ms. Miles claims that previous Maupassant collections reveal him as "if not misogynistic, at least deeply cynical in his portrayal of women," and she has taken it upon herself to "redress that previous imbalance." Hard to believe Penguin let her get away with such nonsense. First of all, Maupassant was cynical about humankind: both men AND women. If anything, he largely pokes fun at men's egos and their consequent foibles in dealing with women, who mostly come across as more subtle and intuitive. Secondly, Miles's reading of Maupassant as a misogynist fails to account for the great female Maupassant heroines like Mouche, Madame Tellier, Boule de Suif, Mother Sauvage, and of course the tragic Jeanne from the novel "A Woman's Life (Un Vie)." In truth, Maupassant's greatest characters defy the kind of easy, simplistic categorization that Miles celebrates in describing "the stupid and brutal count in 'A Woman's Confession' or the insufferably chauvinistic doctor in 'Madame Husson's Rose King.'" Comments like these reduce Maupassant to a kind of 19th century Dr. Phil.

The difference in translations is also important to note. Take for example the closing passage of "Idyll":

Note how flat, clumsy and almost too contemporary Miles's translation is:
"'That's enough. I feel much better now. It's put new life in me.'
He got up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. As she replaced inside her dress the two living gourds of her bosom, she said, 'That was a great help, Monsieur. Thanks very much.'
Gratefully, he replied, 'My pleasure, Madame, I'll tell you. I've had no food for two days.'"

Now note how Colet carefully captures the flavor of the rustic dialogue. Also note the impact of his adding the paragraph break:
"'That's enough, I feel better now. That's put new life into me.'
He had stood up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
Pushing her breasts inside her dress, she said: 'That was a real good turn you did me, Monsieur. Thank you very much.'
And he replied gratefully: 'It's me as has to thank you, Madame. I hadn't had a thing to eat for two days.'"

The difference between "That was a great help" vs "That was a real good turn" and "My pleasure" vs "It's me as had to thank you" speaks for itself. This sort of thing is make-or-break when determining a quality translation.

Finally, Miles's Introduction fails to capture the loving and haunting quality that Roger Colet's does. Among other things, Colet's Introduction revisits the serious possibility that Flaubert may have been Maupassant's real father. The subject of illegitimacy is an important one in Maupassant's work (see the wonderful "Pierre and Jean"), but this fascinating and ambiguous connection is not even touched upon here. It is one of numerous egregious omissions and revisions that make this publication tantamount to literary vandalism.

Editorial Review:

Set in the nouveau riche Paris of society women, prostitutes, and playboys; in the Normandy countryside; and on the French Riviera where Maupassant had lived, the thirty-four short stories in this volume are among the most darkly humorous and brilliant in French literature. They focus on the complexity of close relationships: between lovers, as in the poignant fantasy "A Parisian Affair" or the touchingly ironical "The Jewels"; between siblings, as in "At Sea"; and between former partners, as in "Encounter." They reveal two sides of human nature: its grace and generosity and also, as in "Boule de Suif," its greed and hypocrisy. Piquant and varied, Maupassant’s stories lay humanity bare with deft wit and devastating honesty.

Contes du jour et de la nuit (French Edition)

Guy de Maupassant

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Selected Stories of Guy de Maupassant

Guy De Maupassant

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Strange Edition 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a strange edition, by Boomer Books, that I ordered when, after 4 months, the complete works were not available. Neither the translator nor the cover artist(Paul Seurat) is credited, and the preface and introduction are not dated.
The stories themselves range from wonderful to sketchy, which may be a reflection of how much more shaped and polished (for better or for worse) contemporary American short stories now are. OR it may reflect the selection of stories. Having just read "Bel-Ami" (his splendid, finely worked novel, Oxford World's Classics), I wonder if the uneven nature of "Selected Stories" isn't due to selection process used by Boomer Books.
Incidentally Boomer Books (NOT large type-just above average-but for readers in their prime-they make a big point of this) is a great idea, but only IF the books they publish are also great.

Editorial Review:

The literary godfather of such writers as H. H. Munro ("Saki"), O Henry, and Roald Dahl, Maupassant was the master of writing short stories with a twist. Now his most fascinating tales have been collected in this sterling collection. This publication from Boomer Books is specially designed and typeset for comfortable reading.

Contes et nouvelles (French Edition)

Guy de Maupassant

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Editorial Review:

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1885 edition by G. Charpentier et Cie, Paris.

The Works of Guy de Maupassant Volume 3: The Viaticum and Other Stories

Guy de Maupassant

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Editorial Review:

The bright night seemed to be scattering handfuls of stars into the placid sea which was as calm as a blue pond slumbering in the depths of a forest. Among the tall climbing roses which hung a mantle of yellow flowers to the fretted baluster of the terrace there stood out in the distance the illuminated fronts of the hotels and villas and occasionally women’s laughter was heard above the dull monotonous sound of surf and the noise of the fog-horns.' (Excerpt from Text)

Boule De Suif: Et Autres Nouvelles (Petits Classiques Larousse Texte Integral) (French Edition)

Guy de Maupassant

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