The past attracts me, the present frightens me, because the future is death.
— The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, Part One
Guy de Maupassant was a 19th-century French writer, celebrated as a master of the short story. A protégé of Gustave Flaubert, he belonged to the naturalist school and wrote about human lives and the social forces around them with a disillusioned, often pessimistic eye.
His style is spare, and his stories reach their endings with apparent ease. Many are set during the Franco-Prussian War and show civilians changed for good by events they could not control. He wrote 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books and a volume of verse. His first published story, "Boule de Suif", is often considered his most famous.
His style is spare, and his stories reach their endings with apparent ease. Many are set during the Franco-Prussian War and show civilians changed for good by events they could not control. He wrote 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books and a volume of verse. His first published story, "Boule de Suif", is often considered his most famous.
Most quoted works
- The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, Part One 8
- Bel-Ami 7
- A Day in the Country and Other Stories 6
- Complete Works 4
- Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques 4
- 88 Short Stories 3
Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.
— The Complete Short Stories Vol. 2 of 3
....and I gazed at these forms incomprehensible to me, but which revealed the immortal thoughts of the greatest shatterer of dreams who had ever dwelt on earth.
— The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, Part One
Nature loves death: she will not punish it.
— 88 More Stories
Is it not rather the touch of Love, of Love the Mysterious, who seeks constantly to unite two beings, who tries his strength the instant he has put a man and a woman face to face?
— Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant
A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.
— Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques
Solitude is indeed dangerous for a working intelligence. We need to have around us people who think and speak. When we are alone for a long time we people the void with phantoms
— Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques
I said, 'If other beings besides us exist on Earth, why didn't we meet them a long time ago?
— Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques
Solitude is obviously dangerous for people with active brains. We need men around us who have ideas and like talking. Leave us alone for any length of time, and we start filling the void with supernatural creatures.
— A Day in the Country and Other Stories
I am lost! Someone has taken over my mind and is controlling it! Someone is in command of all my actions, movements, and thoughts. I am nothing inside, merely a spectator enslaved and terrified by everything I do.
— A Day in the Country and Other Stories