Guy De Maupassant Essay

One of the fathers of the modern short story, is Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant, who is an famous French writer in the 19th-century. He lived from August 5th, 1850 to July 6th, 1893. Throughout his lifetime, Maupassant has created 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and one volume of verse.

In my opinion, Guy de Maupassant may be the most influential writers, besides William Shakespeare, because of his clever plotting, and how much he affected other writers.

Maupassant was born at the château de Miromesnil, the Seine-Inférieure (now Seine-Maritime) department in France near Dieppe. At an early age, he lost his father due to his parents’ divorce. Maupassant and his younger brother began life with his mother at the age of eleven. Maupassant’s mother was very fond of classical literature and was a well read women, causing her to become the most influential figure in Maupassant’s life.

At the age of thirteen, Maupassant was sent to a seminary near Rouen for classical studies. He then saved the life of famous poet Algernon Charles Swinburne from drowning at Normandy at eighteen. When Maupassant entered junior high school, he met the great author Gustave Flaubert.

Later on, Maupassant entered a theological college first at Yvetot, but purposely got himself expelled. Then, he was sent to the Lycée Pierre-Corneille, a school in Rouen, France, where he proved a good scholar gratify in poetry and taking a prominent part in theatricals.

It was not long before the Franco-Prussian War broke out soon after Maupassant’s graduation from college in 1870, and he become a volunteer and fought bravely. The next year, Maupassant moved to Paris and became a clerk in the Navy Department. Gustave Flaubert took care of Maupassant and guided his debut in journalism and literature. Maupassant met Émile Zola, Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev, and many of the proponents of the realist and naturalist schools at Flaubert’s home.

He was shifted to the Ministry of Public Instruction in 1878, and became a contributing editor of several leading newspapers such as Le Figaro, Gil Blas, Le Gaulois and l'Écho de Paris. He used his spare time to writing novels and short stories.

In 1880, “Boule de Suif” Maupassant’s first masterpiece was published, which was an overwhelming success.

From 1880 to 1891 was the most fertile period