Guy de Maupassant
August 5, 1850 – July 6, 1893
Also known as: Guy de Valmont | Joseph Prunier | Maufrigneuse
Guy de Maupassant was a French writer of the second half of the 19th century, a representative of literary realism and naturalism along with Émile Zola and Gustave Flaubert. His six novels and several collections of short stories deserve attention for their power of realism, fantastical elements and pessimism, but also for their stylistic art. Maupassant's real literary career is defined by a mere decade – he worked between 1880 and 1890. He was recognized during his lifetime and even today he is perceived as a giant of French literature, whose work is still being interpreted and adapted.
He was born in 1850 at the Château de Miromesnil in Seine-Inférieure into the de Maupassant family, and the particle "de" was assigned to the family by a decision of July 9, 1846. Gustave de Maupassant married Laure le Poittevin, who came from a well-to-do family, in the same year. Together with her brother Alfred, she was friends with Gustave Flaubert, who would later influence her son's life and literary career. In 1856, the couple's second son, Hervé, was born. Both parents then outlived their children.
In 1859, Gustave was employed at the Stolz Bank in Paris, and Guy attended the Imperial Gymnasium (Lycée Henri-IV). His mother's free-thinking and his father's fickleness led to his parents' divorce at the age of eleven. Laure kept both of her sons and traveled with them to Normandy to the town of Étretat, whose atmosphere Guy fell in love with. He grew up in love with the surrounding countryside and sports, and he also spoke the local dialect. He was very fixated on his mother.
At the age of thirteen, at the request of his mother, he was sent to a seminary in Yvetot. It was here that he began with his first verses. From his early studies he took with him only a hatred of religion; therefore, he was subsequently expelled from school and entered the lyceum in Rouen, where he proved to be an excellent student dedicated to poetry and theater. At that time, he regularly visited Louis Bouilhet and especially Gustave Flaubert, from whom he learned a lot. In October 1868, when Maupassant was eighteen years old, he managed to save the drowning Algernon Charles Swinburne, a famous English poet. He invited him to dinner for his courage. In 1869, Maupassant completed his studies at the lycée and went to Paris to study law on the advice of his mother and Flaubert.
However, everything was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War, in which he voluntarily participated. A few years later, in 1871, he left Normandy and moved permanently to Paris, where he was employed as a clerk in the Ministry of the Navy and then in the Ministry of Public Education (from 1878 to 1882). He published his first short story in L'Almanach lorrain in February 1875 under the pseudonym Joseph Prunier. This is followed by the short story En canot in March 1876; this time he signed it as Guy de Valmont.
In October 1876, Maupassant received an invitation to become a Freemason, to which he responded: "I will never be connected to any political party, whatever it may be, no religion, no sect, no school; never to enter into an association governed by doctrines, not to bow to any dogma, (...) and this only in order to preserve the right to say something bad about them."
At the end of January 1877, Maupassant met the Russian writer Turgenev, who found him very decrepit. The diagnosis was clear – syphilis. This disease slowly killed Maupassant. His only pleasure during the following years was canoeing, which he practiced on the Seine, always in good company every Sunday and during holidays. He used to take young ladies on rides on the Feuille de rose boat. Another of his pastimes was hunting, which was also reflected in the content of some of his stories.
Gustave Flaubert took him under his wing and guided him in the early stages of his literary career. He urged him to abandon stupidity, easy women and canoeing and to devote himself fully to the verses for which he was born. At Flaubert's place he met the top representatives of the literary life of the time: Turgenev, Zola and other representatives of naturalism and realism. He began contributing to several newspapers, such as Le Figaro, Gil Blas, Le Gaulois and l'Echo de Paris. Still supported by Flaubert, he published his first book of 100 pages, Histoire du vieux temps, in 1879. In 1880, he co-authored with Zola the collective collection of naturalists Les Soirées de Médan, to which he contributed his short story The Ball (Boule de suif), which was a great success with audiences and critics alike. In the same year, however, he learned of the sudden death of Flaubert, which affected him greatly.
The periods between 1880 and 1890 are his most prolific periods. He has published six novels, more than three hundred short stories and several travelogues. He worked methodically, publishing two to four volumes a year. A sense of good business brought him wealth.
In May 1881, he published his first collection of short stories, La Maison Tellier, which went through six editions in two years. On July 6, 1881, he left Paris and set out on a journey to North Africa as editor of the magazine Le Gaulois. He wrote to his lover: "I have gone to the Sahara!! (...) Do not blame me, my dear friend, for making such a quick decision. You know I'm a drifter and I don't have order. Tell me where to address my letters, and send yours to Algiers poste restante. I kiss you everywhere...". He returned to Paris in mid-September after a short stay in Corsica.
In 1883 he completed his first novel, which he had begun six years earlier: The Story of a Life (Une vie). In less than a year, 25,000 copies of the book were sold, although the work was initially banned by censorship. Leo Tolstoy also praised the novel: "It is the greatest achievement of French literature after Les Misérables." After his first publications had brought him some income, Maupassant built a house in Étretat, "La Guillette" or "Guy's House", which he lived every summer in the company of friends. On February 27, 1883, milliner Joséphine Litzelmann gave birth to his first child – Lucien. A year later, a daughter and a third child were born in 1887. In 1884, Maupassant began a love affair with Princess Emmanuela Potock, a beautiful and spiritually wealthy woman with Italian-Polish roots. In the same year, he finished writing Darling. In his novels, Guy de Maupassant concentrated all the themes that are scattered in the stories. Darling, which was published in 1885, had to be reprinted several times during the first four months. Maupassant laughed, saying, "Honey, it's me!" After sorting out the things around the publication of Darling in a serial in the magazine, he left for Italy, again accompanied by friends.
Maupassant's natural aversion to society – as well as his poor health – led him to early retirement, solitude and meditation. He went on a long journey to Algeria, Italy, England, Brittany, Sicily, Auvergne and others. For him, every trip was synonymous with new reports for the press and travel diaries. On his yacht named "Bel-Ami" – Darling, he took a sightseeing tour of the Mediterranean. However, even his love of space, travels and solitude did not prevent him from making new friends, for example with Alexandre Dumas Jr. or the historian and philosopher Hippolyte Taino.
In 1887, the novel Mont-Oriol from a medical environment saw the light of day, in which Maupassant devoted himself to a new branch of science – psychology. He also touched on the issue of anti-Semitism in the salons, through the character of William Andermatt. In the same year, he signed a petition against the erection of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The development of syphilis into its neuroluetic form led to Maupassant's numerous migraine headaches and transient visual disturbances in the late 1980s. His friends noticed his unusual behavior, as well as a conspicuous obsession with self-preservation, loneliness and madness. In his letters, he mentioned his depression, pain and fear of death. He was plagued by hallucinations, as well as the belief that his brain was being eaten by flies or that he was being systematically pursued by an unknown evil.
On January 2, 1892, Maupassant attempted suicide, which was prevented by his servant. He was then transferred to the Dr. Esprit Blanche asylum for the insane in Passy, Paris, where he died on July 6, 1893. He is buried in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.