Original Short Stories

In Short

Guy de Maupassant’s Original Short Stories captures the quiet ironies, hidden vices, and sudden horrors of late-nineteenth-century French society. Across a canvas ranging from Parisian drawing rooms and country estates to Mediterranean coasts and Normandy brothels, these tales observe ordinary clerks, aristocrats, peasants, and outcasts. Characters navigate tragic misunderstandings, supernatural terrors, bitter revenge, and awkward comedy. Maupassant weaves concise, sharp narratives that peel away social pretenses to expose base human motivations. The collection endures because of its clear-eyed observation, precise narrative economy, and timeless exposure of human vulnerability, obsession, and moral fragility.

The Story

The collection opens with intimate portraits of bourgeois life where respectable appearances mask strange realities. In "The False Gems," Monsieur Lantin, a contented government clerk, adores his seemingly modest wife despite her excessive love for the theater and cheap imitation jewelry. When she dies suddenly, Lantin finds himself impoverished, only to discover upon trying to sell her trinkets that her entire collection consists of genuine, extraordinarily valuable gems—revealing a secret life of wealthy admirers.

As the stories range across geographical and psychological landscapes, Maupassant examines how isolation and desire distort the human spirit. "Fascination" takes the reader to a sun-drenched, distant coast where a French exile obsessively cultivates the virgin soil while remaining forever tormented by nostalgic longing for Parisian society. Darker motives emerge in "A Vendetta," set in Corsica, where a grieving mother methodically trains her dog to tear out the throat of her son's murderer, executing her vengeance under the guise of an innocent old beggar before sleeping peacefully at night.

Misunderstandings and social absurdities frequently disrupt the characters' lives. In "My Twenty-Five Days," the diary of a health-resort visitor records small daily weight fluctuations alongside comic observations of fellow guests. Other tales take an awkward turn, as when a guest at a wedding party gets hopelessly drunk, stumbles into the bride’s sister's room, falls asleep on the floor, and gets caught by the entire household the next morning, forcing an absurd family tribunal to deliberate his fate.

The narrative shifts seamlessly to community life in "The Maison Tellier," where a brothel madam temporarily closes her establishment to take her working girls into the country for her niece’s First Communion. The journey becomes a strange pilgrimage where the prostitutes weep with genuine emotion in the village church, deeply moving the local congregation before they return home to resume their nightly trade.

Physical violence and strange psychological burdens haunt the later stories. In "Denis," a valet attacks his master in his sleep, only to spend the following weeks meticulously nursing the wounded man back to health to avoid execution, creating a bizarre bond of silent dependency between master and servant. Intrigue turns erotic and uncanny in "The Unknown," where a man purchases a expensive ring for a mysterious lady, only to discover a strange black spot between her shoulders that fills him with supernatural dread and lifelong obsession.

Finally, the collection ventures directly into the gothic in "The Apparition." A military officer enters a long-abandoned chateau to retrieve private papers for a friend. While inside, he encounters a ghost-like woman who silently begs him to comb her icy hair. Horrified, he flees the estate with her long black hairs still clinging to his uniform cape, only to discover that his friend has vanished without a trace, leaving the mystery forever unresolved.

How It Unfolds

A deceptive domestic paradise — Monsieur Lantin lives in total marital bliss with his virtuous, frugal wife until her sudden death leaves him destitute. While attempting to sell her seemingly worthless glass trinkets to pay his bills, he discovers they are worth a fortune, exposing her secret infidelity.

Revenge trained in secret — Following her son's murder, an old Corsican mother starves her dog Semillante and teaches the animal to savage a canvas dummy wrapped in sausage. Crossing the straits in disguise, she unleashes the famished hound directly at the killer's throat in his workshop.

A sacred excursion — Madame Tellier takes her brothel workers on a train ride to a rural Normandy village to attend her niece’s First Communion. The women's overwhelming emotional outburst inside the chapel inspires the entire parish, after which they return to resume business as usual.

A bloody midnight assault — Monsieur Marambot awakens to find himself stabbed by his trusted servant Denis, but instead of finishing the job, Denis cleans and bandages the wounds. The master agrees not to notify the police while the servant painstakingly nurses him back to health.

A ghostly encounter — A soldier visits an abandoned mansion to retrieve letters for an acquaintance and encounters a pale woman who asks him to comb her frozen hair. He flees in terror, finding long strands of her hair on his coat, while the friend who sent him vanishes forever.

The People

• Monsieur Lantin wants nothing more than a quiet, affectionate home life with his modest bride. His blissful ignorance is shattered when her death reveals that her vast collection of faux jewelry was actually authentic, forcing him to accept that his financial comfort was funded by her secret lovers.
• Madame Tellier wants to run a respectable, orderly establishment in Fécamp while fulfilling her family obligations as a devout aunt. She balances her duties as a brothel madam with stern maternal authority, guiding her girls through both rural religious rituals and nightly city debauchery.
• Monsieur Marambot wants to survive a murderous attack after waking up covered in blood in his own bed. Forced to rely on Denis—the very servant who stabbed him—he manages his murderer with careful instructions, trading his silence for dedicated bedside nursing.
• Denis wants to escape the gallows after committing a sudden, botched violent crime against his master. To hide his guilt, he takes on the role of a devoted nurse, spending sleepless nights nursing Marambot back to health to secure a quiet pardon.
• Madame Saverini wants justice for her murdered son after local laws fail to punish the killer. Undeterred by her age and weakness, she methodically trains her hound into a lethal weapon, executing her bloody retribution and restoring her family's honor.

In Its Own Voice

"Her simple beauty had the charm of angelic modesty, and the imperceptible smile which constantly hovered about the lips seemed to be the reflection of a pure and lovely soul."

When Monsieur Lantin first meets his future bride, her outwardly modest demeanor completely conceals the secret life she will lead.

"The girl was simply a puzzle to me. She was a mystery. She lived amid those infamous surroundings with a quiet, tranquil ease that was either terribly criminal or else the result of innocence."

A traveler observes young Yvette Samoris, unable to discern whether her serene behavior in her mother's questionable salon stems from total purity or deep cynicism.

"I unbuttoned my waistcoat, which was choking me, I loosened my trousers and went to sleep."

An embarrassed dinner guest recounts the foolish drunkenness that caused him to crash onto the wrong bedroom floor and wake up beside a colonel's daughter.

What It's Really About

Beneath their crisp narrative surfaces, these stories examine the fundamental divide between public respectability and private reality. Maupassant relentlessly investigates how social conventions, modest smiles, and formal titles serve as masks for illicit desire, obsession, and greed. The tales argue that human behavior is driven by primal instincts—revenge, vanity, fear, and lust—that easily break through the thin veneer of nineteenth-century French etiquette. Furthermore, the collection explores isolation, showing how individuals remain deeply inscrutable to one another. Whether dealing with a spouse's hidden life, a servant's sudden violence, or an unexplained supernatural phantom, Maupassant forces his characters to confront the unsettling realization that they cannot truly know the people around them.

Why Read It Today

This collection appeals to readers who appreciate dark humor, psychological realism, and masterfully constructed short fiction. Maupassant writes with sharp precision, stripping away narrative excess to deliver fast-paced stories driven by sharp observations and surprising ironic twists. The reading experience is intensely vivid, offering an unvarnished tour of nineteenth-century France that spans from glitzy Parisian theater boxes to muddy Normandy farmyards.

Modern readers should be prepared for period attitudes that reflect the casual social, class, and racial biases of the late nineteenth century. Some entries lean heavily into melodramatic gothic tropes or regional stereotypes. Furthermore, the brevity of the stories means that characters are often presented as archetypes rather than deeply developed psychological studies. Nevertheless, Maupassant’s clear prose, biting wit, and unsentimental insight into human flaws make this volume remarkably accessible. The stories stay with you because they capture timeless human absurdities, reminding us how easily routine lives can be overturned by a single hidden truth.