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A Parisian Affair and Other Stories

By Guy de Maupassant
Penguin Classics
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
A Parisian Affair and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant is a collection of short stories that delve into the intricate and often unsettling facets of human nature and society. Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, each story explores themes like love, betrayal, desire, and the complexities of relationships, all expressed with Maupassant's trademark wit and keen observational skills. Through vivid characters and insightful narratives, the book captures the nuances of life with elegance and depth.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this collection if you appreciate eloquent storytelling that paints vivid pictures of 19th-century Parisian life. This assortment of tales offers glimpses into the complexities of human nature, exploring themes of love, desire, and societal expectations with a touch of irony and wit.

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Include thirty-three tales that focus on the relationships between men and women, between brothers and sisters, and between masters and servants. This title explores the dualistic nature of the human character and reveals nobility, civility and generosity, vanity, greed, and hypocrisy.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A new selection and translation of the best of de Maupassant's short stories.

Set in the Paris of society women, prostitutes, and small-minded bourgeoisie, as well as the isolated villages of rural Normandy that de Maupassant knew as a child, the thirty-three tales in this volume are among the most darkly humorous and brilliant short stories in nineteenth-century literature. They focus on the relationships between men and women, as in the poignant fantasy of A Parisian Affair, between brothers and sisters, and between masters and servants.

Through these relationships, Maupassant explores the dualistic nature of the human character. His stories reveal both nobility, civility, and generosity, and, in stories such as 'At Sea' and 'Boule de Suif', vanity, greed, and hypocrisy. Maupassant's stories repeatedly lay humanity bare with deft wit and devastating honesty.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780140448122

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 24 June 2004

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by Siân Miles

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 20.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 262g

Pages: 352

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About the Author

Guy de Maupassant (1850-93) was a literary disciple of Flaubert and one of the group of young Naturalistic writers that formed around Zola. Maupassant's contribution to the Naturalists collaborative collection of tales, Les Soirees de Medan, was 'Boule de suif', which remains one of the most well-known of the hundreds of stories he wrote over the course of his life and on which his literary reputation now rests. He also wrote six novels, including Bel-Ami (1885) and Pierre et Jean (1888). Sian Miles was born in Wales and educated there and in France where she lived for many years. She now teaches at Warwick University and is the author of an anthology of the writings of Simone Weil, and translations of George Sand's Marianne, Violet Trefusis's Echo, and has collaborated on Paul Valery's Cahiers/ Notebooks.

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