Collected Stories of Guy de Maupassant
is part of the
Barnes & Noble Classics
series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of
:
New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars
Biographies of the authors
Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
Footnotes and endnotes
Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
Comments by other famous authors
Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations
Bibliographies for further reading
Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest.
pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.
Guy de Maupassant is one of the few writers whose short stories—witty, economical, elegant, yet straightforward in style—are so forceful that his literary reputation can rest on them alone. Beneath their deceptively simple surfaces lies a deep understanding of the complexities of the human psyche. Maupassant explores the full panoply of late-nineteenth-century French society, from prostitutes in Parisian brothels and peasants in rural cottages, to adulterous aristocrats at expensive spas and patrician parties.
This collection begins with “Ball-of-Fat,” the first story Maupassant published under his own name. Called a masterpiece by his friend and mentor Gustave Flaubert, it instantly raised the young author to celebrity status and created a clamor for more of his work. He responded with over three hundred stories (and six novels) written in a dozen years. Among others included here are the favorites “The Necklace,” “The Horla,” “The False Gems,” and “Useless Beauty.”
Richard Fusco
received his Ph.D. from Duke University and is Associate Professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. A specialist in nineteenth-century American literature and in short-story narrative theory, his published criticism includes
Maupassant and the American Short Story: The Influence of Form at the Turn of the Century
and
Fin de millénaire: Poe’s Legacy for the Detective Story
.