Non-fiction: Maupassant (biography)

• Author: F. Maritnez
• Title: Maupassant (1850-1893)
  
• Genre: biography
• Published: 2012

1. In order to understand any books by Maupassant it is
2. …important to know more about the man.
3. Here is my review of the biography of Maupassant.
4. I hope it will provide you with some information that
5. …can help you.

1. Maupassant deserves more of my attention.
2. I want to learn more about the man before starting another one of his books.
3. I’m also Interested in the mothers of these world writers.
4. Who were they?
5. How did they influence/nurture their children.
6. As the saying goes..” the apple does not fall far from the tree!”
7. Maupassant enjoyed a carefree youth in Normandy.
8. I’m so impressed by his wise and loving mother.
9. I did not feel any character like her in Bel-Ami.
10. On the contrary, his father was much more
11. …like the “parvenu” social climbing G Duroy!
12. Mme Maupassant leaves her husband and is determined to make sure Guy:
13. ” il faut apprendre l’art et les manières”. (He must learn the art of good manners)
14. His life was short and the book will cover 27 years (1866-1893) in the next 162 pages.
15. This glimpse of the man is even more interesting to me than the book Bel-Ami.
16. His love of La Normand, son bateau, compagnon fidèle, Matho ( le chien).

1. Maupassant  struggled with ridged Catholic schooling .
2. He vows never to belong to Les Parisiennes.
3. Under the guidance of Flaubert GdM will “entreprendre une oeuvre de longue haleine”
4. Guy is now chained to his desk earning a living and wasting his time.
5. GdM has his dark side hidden by his “gaillardise (guy-ness)
6. …figure tranche (honest face) et manières simples” .
7. He reveals his true feeling in letters to his kind mother.
8. “Je me trouve seul devant ma table avec ma triste lamp”. (…alone at my desk with my lamp)
9. Winter terrified GdM: (black…sinsiter…deep….the midnight of the year)
10. C ‘est décembre qui me terrifie, le mois noir,
11. le mois sinistre, le mois profond , la minuit de l’ année…”
12. Maupassant is burning the candle at both ends.
13. He is a depressed workaholic who is suffering from heart problems and syphilis.

1. After recuperating in the Alpes he celebrates…in a brothel.
2. “cette amélioration au bordel.” (old habits never die)
3. It is no surprise that his life will be short and that he will produces,
4. in his last 15 years, a waterfall of literature that we still enjoy today:
5. 300 short stories, 6 novels, 3 travel books and 1 book of poetry.
6. Sickness, debt, employment do not impact Maupassant as does the death of “le vieux” Flaubert. This book is full of correspondence between GdM en GF.
7. Flaubert is constantly rescuing Maupassant and guiding him to greatness.
8. GdM flirts and wins over a new lover but as usual the flame goes out very soon.
9. Guy gets easlily bored.
10. Une Vie (1883) was an homage to Flaubert.
11. “A Life” is completed. His (Maupassant)  is finally starting
12. Fact: Guy was starting to go blind and hired a butler to help him
13. These two men were never separated during the last 10 yrs.
14. Page after page Maupassant complains about boredom:
15. “Je m’ embête sans relâche, sans repos, sans espoir”.
16. (bored…constantly, no hope)
17. Relentlessly bored wanting nothing, expecting nothing.
18. Guy can be tiresome at times.
19. Maupassant, man of the world, is happiest when alone.
20. (live in absolute solitude)
21. “je vis dans une solitude absolue.
22. Je suis dans un bain de repos, silence, dans un bain d’ adieu”.
23. (…bath of rest, silence, good-byes).

Une Vie:

1. The main character, Jeanne, is based on
2. …Maupassant’s mother, Laure le Poittevin.
3. She was a victim on an uphappy marriage and submitted
4. herself to an adulterous and violent husband.
5. Laure made a strong move…supported by her friend G. Flaubert
6. and left her husband which was unusual in the 19th C.
7. She concentrated all her attention on her son, Guy.
8. As you read the book you can see the similarities
9. between Laure and Jeanne

1. I expected GdM to be more like Bel-Ami…the  social climber.
2. He is just the opposite, a lover of nature and the sea.
3. Piroli the cat loves him, Francois (butler) cares for him
4. …and the literary world reveres him.
5. Maupassant finds it hard to cope with the needs of
6. …his mentally ill brother Hervé, elderly mother Laure and his own health.
7. He tries to bury his worries with “sous rires et gaieté” . .
8. Interesting was the anguish GdM went through visiting his now insane brother.
9. Heartbreaking. We feel GdM wondering
10. “… quand sera-ce mon tour?”
11. Will he be the next in the family to loose their mind?

1. The end is near.
2. Looking in the mirror GdM sees how death is ruining his body.
3. He flees to every thermal spa but they are a “Way of the Cross” for him.
4. It takes him 1 minute to write 1 word, he is practically blind.
5. On 06 Jan 1892 GdM is in a
6. …straight jacket and committed to an asylum in Paris.
7. His butler, Francois, visits him everyday.
8. GdM died 1,5 years later on 06 July 1893. (43 yr)
9. Maupassant was a very private person, little is known about him.
10. He said: “Je laisse seulement parler de mes livres“
11. Let them only talk about my books….