Guy de Maupassant

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was born in Normandy in 1850 and passed away in Paris in 1893. He began writing at the age of thirteen and continued to work intensively until the end of his life. His oeuvre includes six novels, eight plays, several poetry collections, numerous essays, articles, travel narratives, and most notably, over three hundred short stories. Maupassant grew up in Normandy, close to nature and the rural people. He was an intelligent boy with keen observational skills who enjoyed both play and study. When Guy wrote his first verses, his mother, thrilled, entrusted him to Flaubert, an old family friend who became Maupassant's literary mentor. At nineteen, he began studying at the law school in Paris and later worked in the public sector. In 1874, he met Zola at Flaubert's home, who befriended him and introduced him to a circle of great artists of the time. In 1880, with Zola's help, his short story "Boule de Suif" was published, earning him recognition as a great short story writer. He resigned from the ministry to devote himself entirely to writing. Maupassant faced serious health issues and died of syphilis in a psychiatric clinic in Paris at the age of just forty-three. In his 310 short stories, he captured reality in all its facets, with detachment, without developing social concerns, in a style that is simple and precise, sometimes light and playful, and at other times bitter and somber.