Devouring De Maupassant: Regret

Title: Regret.
Date Read: 05th July 2010
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: Old, alone and full of gloom, Monsieur Saval ruminates on a life lived apathetically, where achievement and love have never been something to celebrate. Stopping to ponder the point of whether he’s even ever been in love, Monsieur Saval suddenly recalls one summer’s day many [...]

Devouring De Maupassant: The Devil

Title: The Devil.
Date Read: 05th July 2010
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: It’s a sad time in the ramshackle peasant home of Honore Bontemps, as his mother wheezes out her last few hours on the planet. But the wheat harvest stops for no man (or 92-year-old woman) and desperate to gather in the crop before it’s ruined, [...]

Devouring De Maupassant: The Signal

Title: The Signal.
Date Read: 31st May 2010
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: While still asleep in her bed one morning, the Marquise de Rennedon is rudely awakened by the unexpected arrival of her friend the Baronne de Grangerie. The Baronne is in a state. It seems her decision to be a little playful with the men who [...]

Devouring De Maupassant: In the Wood

Title: In the Wood.
Date Read: 31st May 2010
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: Having just sat down to his lunch the mayor is disturbed with the message that the local constable Hochedur is requesting his presence at the town hall. When he arrives he finds the constable standing over a middle-class aged couple; the man looking dejected [...]

Devouring De Maupassant: Imprudence

Title: Imprudence (also known as Indiscretion)
Date Read: 24th May 2010
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: Determined to put a spark back into their mundane and apathetic marriage, Henriette decides to invite her husband Paul to take her dining while she pretends to be his mistress. It all sounds like a sure-fire way to ignite something between them [...]

Devouring De Maupassant: Guillemot Rock

Title: Guillemot Rock (also known as The Penguins’ Rock)
Date Read: 24th May 2010
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: During the months of April and May, a group of aged hunters descend upon the coastal town of Étretat in search of the guillemot, who yearly congregate on a particular rock just off the coast, to lay their [...]

Devouring De Maupassant: Tombstones

Title: Tombstones (also known as The Graveyard Sisterhood, Graveyard Sisters and Graveyard Sirens)
Date Read: 17th May 2010
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: While taking one of his fanciful strolls around Montmartre Cemetery, Joseph de Bardon happens on a young woman grieving in front of the grave of her recently deceased husband. Ever helpful, and always on the [...]

Devouring De Maupassant: Clochette

Title: Clochette
Date Read: 17th May 2010
Available Online?: YES (although read for this review was the David Coward translation of the story in A Day in the Country and Other Stories (Oxford University Press)).
Briefly: The narrator tells the sad tale of Clochette, an old woman whom he remembers clearly, calling on his home regularly during [...]

Devouring De Maupassant: Rosalie Prudent

Title: Rosalie Prudent
Date Read: 10th May 2010
Available Online?: YES (although read for this review was the David Coward translation of the story in A Day in the Country and Other Stories (Oxford University Press)).
Briefly: Poor unmarried maid Rosalie is front of judge and jury charged with the heinous crime of infanticide. There’s no doubt [...]

Devouring De Maupassant: Mademoiselle Pearl

Title: Mademoiselle Pearl
Date Read: 10th May 2010
Available Online?: YES (although read for this review was the David Coward translation of the story in A Day in the Country and Other Stories (Oxford University Press)).
Briefly: While on a visit to a traditional Twelfth Night celebration at his old friend Chantal’s home, the narrator, Gaston, is [...]

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