Bel Ami; Or, the History of a Scoundrel (Dodo Press)

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was a popular 19th-century French writer. He is one of the fathers of the modern short story. As a protégé of Flaubert, his short stories are characterized by their economy of style and their efficient effortless dénouement. In 1880 he published his first masterpiece, Boule de Suif, which Flaubert characterized it as "a masterpiece that will endure. " This was Maupassant's first piece of short fiction and was followed by short stories such as Deux Amis (1882) and Mademoiselle Fifi (1882). He also wrote six short novels. A number of his stories often denote the futility of war and the innocent civilians who, caught, emerge changed - many are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s. In his novels, he concentrated all his observations scattered in his short stories. His second novel was Bel-Ami; or, The History of a Scoundrel, which came out in 1885. His other works include: La Maison Tellier (1881), Une Vie (1883), Miss Harriet (1884), Mont-Oriol (1887), Pierre et Jean (1888), Fort Comme la Mort (1889) and Notre Coeur (1890).