Guy de maupassant the necklace in french

Spoiler alert! Don’t read these notes if you don’t want the ending of the story revealed.

Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) perfected the form of the modern short story. “The Necklace” (in French “La Parure”) was first published in 1884 in the French daily newspaper Le Gaulois and became an instant hit because of its unexpected final twist. Henry James was inspired to reverse its original plot in a story entitled “Paste” (1899). Irish composer Conor Mitchell turned it into Mathilde, a musical first produced professionally by Thomas Hopkins and Andrew Jenkins for Surefire Theatrical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2008.

The highbrow public of the second half of the 19th-century resisted the representation of the lower classes in literature and art. This was due in part to the rise of capitalism and the rigid division of French society into three distinct groups. At the top, the haute bourgeoisie flaunted its wealth, privilege, and power just like the aristocracy had done before the French Revolution of 1789. At the other extreme, the exploited and dreaded masses toiled away in poverty and squalor, whether urban proletariat or rural farm hands. And in between, the petty (or more accurately, the petite) bourgeoisie held modest jobs, with no hope of ever achieving upward social mobility. It is that particular segment of the population made up of shopkeepers, office employees, and low-grade civil servants that Maupassant targets in “The Necklace.”

Maupassant’s characters are not free agents. While they are fate’s puppets (Mathilde is keenly aware she was born in the wrong caste), they are also the products of their own time and place. Mathilde’s longings for a finer, more exciting life echo those of Flaubert’s hapless heroine Emma Bovary and underscore women’s place in 19th century France. This was a time when it was believed that women’s brains we

by Guy de Maupassant

Drawing in part on his own early work experiences, Guy de Maupassant wrote “La Parure” (The Necklace), a short story that ends with the ironic twist for which he was renowned. The piece first appeared in the French newspaper, le Gaulois on February 17, 1884, and was then published as part of a collection of short stories, Contes du Jour et de la Nuit in 1885.

This title is presented in its original language, French. Designed to be phone-friendly, this edition is ready for on-the-go reading.

About the Author

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (August 5, 1850 – July 6, 1893) was a prolific 19-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form. His style was representative of the Naturalist school, which depicted human lives, destinies, and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms. Born in Normandy, he fought in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, an experience which served as dark inspiration for many of his titles. He had his first literary success with the publication of his short story “Boule de Suif” in Les Soirées de Médan, a collection of six short stories by different writers of the naturalist tradition. Following this recognition, Maupassant’s writing appeared in a number of magazines and newspapers, such as Le Figaro, Le Gaulois, and l’Echo de Paris. He also published several novels, notably Bel Ami in 1885. In 1877, however, Maupassant contracted syphilis, causing him increasing pain and suffering. As a result, his mental health also deteriorated and he died in a sanitorium in 1893, just short of his 43 birthday.

1884 short story by Guy de Maupassant

For other uses, see Necklace (disambiguation).

"The Diamond Necklace" redirects here. For other uses, see The Diamond Necklace (disambiguation).

"The Necklace", or sometimes "The Diamond Necklace", (French: La Parure) is a short story by Guy de Maupassant, first published on 17 February 1884 in the French newspaper Le Gaulois. It is known for its twist ending, a hallmark of de Maupassant's style.

Plot

Mme Mathilde Loisel is a beautiful but discontented woman born into a modest family who dreams of wealth, glamour and social prestige, a life she believes she was meant for but cannot afford on the salary of her husband, a clerk at the Ministry of Education.

One day, her husband surprises her by bringing home an invitation to a grand ball hosted by the minister. While he is excited about the chance to attend such a prestigious event, she frets that she has nothing suitable to wear. Her husband sacrifices his savings of 400 francs, intended for a hunting rifle, to buy her a beautiful new dress. Mathilde remains dissatisfied, however, as she has no jewels to wear with it. She rejects her husband's idea of wearing fresh flowers, but takes up his suggestion of borrowing jewellery from her wealthy friend, Mme Forestier. Mme Forestier is happy to help, and offers Mathilde many fine pieces to choose from. She selects a diamond necklace.

At the ball, Mathilde enjoys dancing with influential men, and revels in the attention. However, upon returning home, Mathilde discovers that the necklace is missing. Panicked, she and her husband search extensively but unsuccessfully. Afraid to admit the loss to Mme Forestier, the Loisels decide they will have to replace the ne

In 1884, when the Realist movement was prevalent in Paris, Guy de Maupassant wrote “The Necklace” “La Parure”. Like the Impressionists of Paris who were reacting against the depiction of Romanticism in painting, Maupassant wanted to describe everyday life in Paris through literature.

The Romantics valued imagination and human passions, innocence and simplicity. The Realists, on the other hand, valued knowledge and experience. What was it like to live in 19 century France while the city was being transformed through Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s architecture –large, elegant buildings with stone facades and wrought iron details, majestic parks and boulevards, corner cafés, cobbled stone streets?

This quickly became the Paris that was the setting for the novels of Balzac, Hugo, Baudelaire, Maupassant and documented by many of the Impressionists such as Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Caillebotte (my favorites!).

Under the leadership and vision of Napoleon III, Haussmann modeled the rebuilding of Paris on his previous visits to progressive cities such as London and New York and on his predecessors Louis XIV (Versailles and great boulevards of the Right Bank), Henry IV (Place des Voges) and Louis XV (Place de la Concorde).  Napoleon III was possibly influenced by Voltaire’s essay Des Embellishments de Paris where he describes Paris as “the center of the city dark, confined, frightful…the public markets established in narrow streets, parading squalor, spreading infection, and causing continual disorder” (Pinkney,32). 

Pinkney states that perhaps Napoleon III was also influenced by his uncle Napoleon I who in 1798 said, “If I were master of France, I would want to make Paris not only the most beautiful city that had ever existed, but also the most beautiful city that could exist (33).”

[ Napoleon I followed this dream by building the Rue de Rivoli which spans across the entire city east to west, the Quais along the Seine, four bridges, and publ