De Maupassant Bio.docx

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Guy de Maupassant 

Early life

a clerk in the Navy Department

o Born Henri René Albert Guy de



Gustave Flaubert took him under his

France

protection and guided de Maupassant to

Parents: Laure Le Poittevin and Gustave

his debut in journalism and literature o

de Maupassant, both from rich bourgeois

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Writing Career o

Maupassant on August 5, 1850 in Dieppe,

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He moved to Paris and spent ten years as

In 1878, he was transferred to the

families

Ministry of Public Instruction and became

His parents separated when he was 11

a contributing editor to several leading



He lived with his mother along

newspapers 

with his younger brother o

His mother, who’s very fond of classical

during his free time o

literature (Shakespeare), was the most influential figure in his life 

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At 13, he was sent to the seminary of o

expelled in 1866. He retained a marked hostility to

reached twelve editions within two years o

o He was moved as a day boarder in

In 1883, his first novel, Une Vie, sold 25,000 copies in less than a year

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Institution Leroy-Petit, a private school, along with his brother

In 1885, his second novel , Bel Ami, had thirty-seven printings in just four months

o In 1867, as he entered junior high school,

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Soon after being commissioned by his

he made acquaintance with Gustave

editor to write more stories, he has

Flaubert (French writer –among the

written Pierre et Jean, which is

greatest novelists in Western literature)

considered by many as his greatest novel

at the insistence of his mother o In the following year, he was again sent to

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Later Years o

He loved retirement, solitude and

another school, Lycée Pierre-Corneille,

mediation while he cruised in different

where he proved to be a good scholar

parts of Europe on his private yacht, Bel-

indulging in poetry and theatricals

Ami

During the War o

In 1881, he published his first volume of short stories, La Maison Tellier, which

religion from his early education



The decade from 1880-1891 was the most successful of Maupassant’s life

Yvetot for classical studies but was 

In 1880, his first considered masterpiece, Boule de Suif, met tremendous success

Education o

He wrote novels and short stories

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He made friends with different literary

The Franco-Prussian War broke while he

celebrities of his day. After meeting

was studying law and so he enlisted as a

Hippolyte Taine (critic and historian), he

volunteer in the army.

became a devoted philosopher-historian.

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Maupassant was among the 19th- century Parisians who opposed the construction of the Eiffel Tower. 

He and forty-six other Parisian



Les Soirées de Medan (1880)

literary and artistic notables



Mademoiselle Fifi (1882)

attached their names to a letter of protest against the tower’s construction. o

In his last years, he developed constant desire for solitude, an obsession for selfpreservation, and fear of death and paranoia of persecution caused by the syphilis he had contracted in his youth.

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On January 2, 1892, he tried committing suicide by cutting his throat. He was admitted to the private asylum of Esprit Blanche in Paris, where he died on July 6, 1893 (aged 42)

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Guy de Maupassant wrote his own epitaph, which says: “I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing”.

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Style o

He’s considered as one of the fathers of the modern short story

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Has written in high-Realist and fantastic modes to recreate Third Republic France in a realistic way

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He often implies symptoms of troubled minds in his protagonists. He was fascinated by the discipline of psychiatry after attending public lectures on it.

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Some of His Works o

Novels   

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 Pierre et Jean (1888)  Fort comme la mort (1889)  Notre Cœur (1890) Some of his Short Story Collections

Une Vie (1883) Bel-Ami (1885) Mont-Oriol (1887)