Short Fiction

In Short Fiction, Guy de Maupassant offers a fiction, shorts first published in 1876-1921. Guy de Maupassant uses the form to consider human motives, relationships, conflict, and the consequences of choice, keeping the emphasis on how ideas become choices, conflicts, and consequences. This English edition is presented in a translation by Ernest Boyd, Storm Jameson, Jeffery E. Jeffery, Lafcadio Hearn, M. Walter Dunne, Henry C. Olinger, Albert M. Cohn-McMaster, Dora Knowlton Ranous, Bigelow, Brown & Co., Inc., Francis Steegmuller, bringing the work’s original voice into a different linguistic setting. The reading experience is shaped by a character-centered narrative style that rewards attention to voice, structure, and perspective. At roughly 823,474 words with a fairly easy reading profile, it offers a reading commitment that is easy to judge before beginning while still leaving room for close attention. Its continuing value lies in its capacity to make unfamiliar lives and difficult choices emotionally legible. Its strongest appeal lies in the meeting of human motives and character-centered narrative style, giving the book both immediate character and lasting interest.