Guy de Maupassant

                Guy de Maupassant gained his first glimpse of his new world on the fifth of August, 1850, near Dieppe in the Seine-Inférieure department (Online-Literature). Six years later, his parents, Laure Le Poittevin and Gustave de Maupassant, brought him a brother. His name, was Herve. Sadly, this was one of the rare moments of happiness that blessed his childhood. As Guy grew, so did his troubles. At age eleven his parents were, sadly, divorced. It was his mom who he lived with and his mom who instilled him with a love for literature. This love, would last until his well-remembered death-date, the sixth of July, 1893(Wikipedia.org). “I entered life as a meteor, and I shall leave it as a thunderbolt.” – Guy de Maupassant (Wikiquote.org)

Following his newfound love for the written works, he was sent to a small seminary in Rouen for his classical studies taken at age thirteen. “It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living” – Guy de Maupassant (Wikiquote.org) Five years later, he witnessed the poet Algernon Charles Swinburn drowning off the coast, and after having rescued him, grew to be a great companion of his. His literary relations weren’t to end there, however, his junior year of high school, he met with the author Gustave Flaubert (Wikipedia.org). With these famed and experienced minds constantly infusing their knowledge in him, Guy’s poetic attempts were beginning to skyrocket. It was soon proven though, that poetry was not his only concern. In Rouen lycée, he proved found himself indulging in not only poetry, but he quickly found himself in a prominent position concerning theatre. Although it appears he was an educated scholar, all of his educational circumstances were not of his selection. Entering a seminary in Yvetot, he quickly and intentionally found himself expelled (Wikipedia.org).

Once his years of education had been completed, Guy was ready to move on to what he truly desired, to be known as one of the “great” poets. The year 1880 found itself in possession of the creation of Guy’s first masterpiece “Boule de Suif.” (Online-Literature) Quickly, word of his creations spread and with the growth of news, came a growth in his fame. Encouraged, Maupassant saw opportunity and with a number of his first works, including “Deux Amis”, “Mother Savage”, and “Mademoiselle Fifi,” (Wikipedia.org) he seized opportunity. In the eleven years following his first shorty story, his fame inspired him to heights that few others have reached in ages before. Maupassant found himself rapidly creating two, three, sometimes even four volumes per year. The essence of practical business sense combined with his literary skill in novels, caused wealth to flow in countless amounts. Sadly, Guy’s “open doors” were slammed shut without so much as a foothold left when he desperately attempted suicide in 1892 and instead was relocated to the local asylum (Online-Literature). It was in the asylum that Guy de Maupassant died, on the sixth of July, 1893. Guy is missed as Friedrich Nietzsche tribute is given to his companions memory, “I cannot at all conceive in which century of history one could haul together such inquisitive and at the same time delicate psychologists as one can in contemporary Paris: I can name as a sample – for their number is by no means small, … or to pick out one of the stronger race, a genuine Latin to whom I am particularly attached, Guy de Maupassant.” (Wikipedia.org)

Works Cited

“Guy de Maupassant” http://en.wikipedia.org December 13, 2010

“Guy de Maupassant” http://en.wikiquote.org December 6, 2010

“Guy de Maupassant” http://www.online-literature.com November 13, 2010