jasonfurman 's review for:

Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant

5.0

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I really loved this, was totally absorbed and often felt like calling everyone I knew to read them passages. It is a novel firmly in the tradition of Balzac (a provincial trying to succeed in Paris by working his way up in journalism, encountering Jewish financiers, courtesans and more along the way); Zola (it has a "naturalistic" feel and an epic sweep); and Flaubert (with a minute examination of the consequences of infidelity). The city of Paris comes alive as much as it does for any of these other authors, as do all of the details of money, what everything costs, how much one gets paid, and how to match up imbalances between the two. Sure, Bel-Ami also has some epic weaknesses: most of the women are passive, weak and stupid (although arguably the main female character, Madeleine Forestier, who is brilliant, ambitious, bright, and savvy about succeeding in a world dominated by men); the main character, a rake named Duroy, feels at most two dimensional; and the plot rests on at least two particularly conveniently timed deaths. But these weaknesses are nothing compared the the pure thrill of watching Duroy ascend higher and higher through the corruption, sex, money and power of Paris--in a novel that ultimately cares more about its fidelity to its artistic vision unencumbered, unlike some earlier 19th century novels, by any need to convey a particularly pat morality.