Selected Stories: Introduction by Catriona Seth, Hardcover

During his most productive decade, the 1880s, the French writer Guy de Maupassant wrote more than three hundred stories, notably including The Necklace, Boule de Suif, The Horla, and Mademoiselle Fifi. Marked by the psychological realism that he famously pioneered, the stories selected here take us on a tour of the human experience--lust and love, revenge and ridicule, terror and madness. Many take place in the author's native Normandy, but the settings range farther abroad as well, from Brittany and Paris to Corsica and the Mediterranean coast, and as far as North Africa and India.

Maupassant's remarkable psychological range and ability to evoke an entire world in a few pages have ensured that his stories have entertained generations of readers, and this volume of thirty-two of his most enduring masterpieces makes a perfect gift for any lover of classic fiction.

About author(s):GUY DE MAUPASSANT (1850-93) was known for his hugely influential short stories and the vivid realism of his novels. He was born in Normandy and served in the Franco-Prussian War, which would become the subject of some of his best-known stories. Maupassant enjoyed financial and critical success before illness led to his death in an asylum at the age of forty-two.

CATRIONA SETH is a professor of French literature at Oxford University and a Fellow of All Souls College. She was brought up in Europe and South America and spent most of her working life in France. She is known for her work on French literature and cultural history of the Enlightenment.