Biography Out Loud -- Guy de Maupassant

An audio version of this episode is available below.

Born on August 5^th, 1850, he once said, “I entered literary life as a meteor, and I shall leave it like a thunderbolt.” One of many French people who despised the Eiffel Tower, he would often eat at the restaurant at its base to avoid having to see the structure. Who is this outspoken author who has been called one of the fathers of the modern short story? We’ll find out in a moment on Biography Out Loud.

Biography Out Loud

Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant and forty-six other notable French authors and artists wrote a letter to the Minister of Public Works protesting the construction of the Eiffel Tower. An influential writer, Maupassant is credited with inspiring the works of several authors including O. Henry, Somerset Maugham and Henry James. When he was eighteen, he saved the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne from drowning, and was passionate about boating. He served as a Naval clerk in the Franco-Prussian War for ten years. Flaubert was a great influence on Guy de Maupassant, guiding him in his efforts in writing. Maupassant became very popular with multiple reprinting of his short stories and novels. He knew Alexander Dumas, Turgenev and Zola. Maupassant once said, “It is the encounters with people that make life worth living.”

He desired more and more solitude in his advancing years, fearing death and feeling persecuted. He tried to commit suicide but was placed in a private asylum where he died on July 6^th, 1893. Writing his own epitaph, he said, “I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing."

In his short story, “A Wife’s Confession”, Guy de Maupassant says, “A legal kiss is never as good as a stolen one.”

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