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Some biographical titbits on Guy de Maupassant :

He is considered one of the fathers of the modern short story as well as one of its finest practitioners. He came from a well connected aristocratic family and his mother introduced him to Gustave Flaubert who not only provided him with a father figure but also encouraged his entry into the world of literature. Soon he was mixing with the leading writers of the day, among them Emile Zola, Ivan Turgenev and Henry James and, despite his boring daytime work as a civil servant, his leisure time was spent having fun and mixing with women of dubious reputation.

He was a popular writer during his lifetime and had the good fortune to see that his stories were widely read. As a young man he fought in the Franco-Prussian war. He drew heavily on that experience and that war provides the setting for many of his stories which often depict the tragedy and suffering of innocent civilians caught in war's path. He also found inspiration in the not-so-admirable behavior of the bourgeoisie, and made them targets of his biting pessimism and skewering pen.'

Maupassant had suffered from his 20s from syphilis. The disease later caused increasing mental disorder - also seen in his nightmarish stories, which have much in common with Edgar Allan Poe's supernatural visions. Critics have charted Maupassant's developing illness through his semi-autobiographical stories of abnormal psychology, but the theme of mental disorder is present even in his first collection, La Maison Tellier (1881), published at the height of his health.

On January 2, in 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat and was committed to the celebrated private asylum of Dr. Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris, where he died on July 6, 1893.'

There is a lovely illustrated version of this available. I have used the one in my library system. I can't tell you more here other than to look for it if you have a chance. If/when I find out more, will post.

P.S. It was probably this:

Author: Maupassant, Guy de, 1850-1893.
Title: Bel-Ami / by Guy de Maupassant ; with an introduction by Alec Waugh ; & illustrations by Bernard Lamotte.
Publisher, Date: New York : Heritage Press, c1968.
Description: ix, 266 p., [16] leaves of plates : col. ill. ; 28 cm.

This one Lily? If you Google Bel Ami Lamotte illustrations a couple come up under Images.



He illustrated a number of well known French novels and he also created a mural of Christiansted Harbor on St. Croix, Virgin Islands for the White House pool for John F. Kennedy, which is now preserved in the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Boston:

MadgeUK wrote: "This one Lily? If you Google Bel Ami Lamotte illustrations a couple come up under Images.



He illustrated a num..."

Probably the same illustrations, Madge. Our library system copy was not the Eaton Edition, however. The info I entered above was from our online listing and my best guess it is the same book I borrowed several years ago.

I searched with Google images for "Bernard Lamotte Bel Ami illustrations". Not very many came up that seemed to me to be Bel Ami related. But the few that did seemed to have the coloring that I recall -- which I remember because it was so much more vivid than most other book illustrations I have seen.

I didn't particularly expect an illustrated book at the time, so it was all a delightful surprise.

Dagny wrote: "MadgeUK wrote: "Some biographical titbits on Guy de Maupassant:" To add a few more tidbits: Maupassant loved the water, both boating and swimming. Zola described him in his youth as a "terrific o..."

As a young man he saved Swinburne from drowning,
he was painted boating by Manet,

and his own 30ft yawl was named ... Bel-Ami.

Thanks Wendel, I didn't know that was Lamotte.

Syphilis affected a high proportion of the population, high and low, until penicillin was found as a cure. It was far more common than AIDS:

Wow. That's a smack in the head. Ive been a fan of du Maupassant's short stories since I was a kid. I had no idea about that aspect of this life. :( And, yeah, it's easy to forget the prevalence of the disease post penicillin. Will that be true of AIDS one day?

By the latter half of the 1880s, when Maupassant was in his 30s, his health was in severe decline. He became increasingly sombre as the syphilis attacked his spinal chord and he became obsessed with the notion that there were flies devouring his brain.

His friends began to remark on his unusual behaviour and his writing became shocking and, on occasion, nothing short of outrageous. Maupassant had always had a taste for the macabre but, combined with his fears for himself, he now produced a series of disturbing stories such as Yvette, which detailed a bloody self abortion; Le Horla, presented a diary account of the narrator’s descent into madness and Pierre et Jean, a profile of two brothers was thought immoral as the hero is successful in his wrong doings.

Has anyone seen the film of Bel Ami with Robert Pattison as Duroy? It captures the book and the era quite well but I did not feel Pattison was scoundrelly enough.

MadgeUK wrote: "Has anyone seen the film of Bel Ami with Robert Pattison as Duroy? It captures the book and the era quite well but I did not feel Pattison was scoundrelly enough."

My library has a copy. Your words encourage me to check it out and watch it.