Scan barcode
A review by ronanmcd
A Parisian Affair and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant
4.0
I've been meaning to read de Maupassant for a long time.
The bad first; this collection is too long by 200%. Much of it is the same recurring themes of A meets B, D happens although C was the expected outcome, all of which is related by E. That's fine, and it must be appreciated that these were written before the short story became a more experimental, free-flowing genre.
The good; the stories as a whole bring into focus the lives of the French in a period of massive upheaval. It's bang in the historical centre of a time when the aristocracy and the church had been suppressed if not removed, then returned. Napoleon had waged wars, there had been communes and killings, empire and poverty, and finally brutal military defeat. It was a time when women's equality was becoming a possibility and enlightened attitudes thoughout the stories reflective of these themes abound.
We are brought to respect and identify with the maltreated prostitute (prostitution was decriminalised), we read the pros and cons of revenge in a time of war for the loss of a child.
Some of the stories have the immense power of looking at everyday life, but seeing the hardship (an elderly woman reflect on 40 years of her son growing apart from her), some stories are simply baffling (a wet nurse breastfeeds an impoverished man on a train) and some are prescient (an assisted suicide clinic accepts visitors from abroad).
Although I say it's too long due to it feeling repetitive, each story has merit and adds to a rich picture of 19th century France, and inparticular the middle and upper classes.
The bad first; this collection is too long by 200%. Much of it is the same recurring themes of A meets B, D happens although C was the expected outcome, all of which is related by E. That's fine, and it must be appreciated that these were written before the short story became a more experimental, free-flowing genre.
The good; the stories as a whole bring into focus the lives of the French in a period of massive upheaval. It's bang in the historical centre of a time when the aristocracy and the church had been suppressed if not removed, then returned. Napoleon had waged wars, there had been communes and killings, empire and poverty, and finally brutal military defeat. It was a time when women's equality was becoming a possibility and enlightened attitudes thoughout the stories reflective of these themes abound.
We are brought to respect and identify with the maltreated prostitute (prostitution was decriminalised), we read the pros and cons of revenge in a time of war for the loss of a child.
Some of the stories have the immense power of looking at everyday life, but seeing the hardship (an elderly woman reflect on 40 years of her son growing apart from her), some stories are simply baffling (a wet nurse breastfeeds an impoverished man on a train) and some are prescient (an assisted suicide clinic accepts visitors from abroad).
Although I say it's too long due to it feeling repetitive, each story has merit and adds to a rich picture of 19th century France, and inparticular the middle and upper classes.