The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume 2

In Short

This volume collects twenty-nine short stories depicting nineteenth-century French life across every social stratum, from restless aristocrats and provincial bourgeois couples to vagrants and performers. Across domestic interiors, coastal villages, and urban drawing rooms, the narrative explores the hypocrisies of marriage, the fragility of honor, and the unspoken cruelties of human nature. Relationships founder on jealousy and deception, while sudden twists expose the vanity beneath polite society. Lasting for its clear-eyed realism and psychological precision, the collection offers an unsparing mirror of human frailties, where small indiscretions yield devastating consequences and moments of grace remain fleeting.

The Story

The volume opens in urban domestic space, where a devoted husband, Monsieur Parent, tends to his young son in a public garden before returning home to a cold and exacting wife. Beneath the surface of their household lies a quiet betrayal: his wife openly despises his gentle nature and carries on an affair with a long-standing family friend, Paul Limousin. The resentment culminates years later in a bitter confrontation where long-buried doubts about paternity are weaponized, leaving the shattered husband haunted by uncertainty.

From this domestic tragedy, the narrative expands into the wider roads and countryside of France. A wandering carpenter, Randel, reduced to vagrancy by lack of work, faces the hostility of local authorities and the agony of starvation. Pushed to the brink by the tantalizing aroma of food from an unattended home, he breaks inside, highlighting the severe divide between the desperate poor and the comfortable middle class. In other vignettes, societal expectations force characters into bizarre compromises. A countess rebels against her husband's demand for endless heirs by falsely claiming one of their children is illegitimate, binding him in permanent psychological torment. Elsewhere, a timid linen-draper named Morin misreads a young woman's smile on a train, commits an awkward assault, and finds himself entangled in a public scandal and legal prosecution.

Rural traditions and provincial life bring their own absurdities and heartbreaks. A newlywed groom in Normandy is ambushed on his wedding night by vengeful poachers, who leave him tied up in the woods with dead game around his neck. In a quiet village, a young farm servant, Rose, is seduced, abandoned, and left to navigate the terror and isolation of an unwanted pregnancy, hiding her condition day by day until her secret collapses. Military occupation and social performance also intersect, as seen when Prussian officers quartered in a French château indulge their vanities, or when a traveling acrobatic troupe balances physical peril with private romantic drama.

Towards the end, the stories turn back to high society and psychological anxiety. A bridegroom experiences overwhelming dread on the eve of his wedding, haunted by fears that the ideal intimacy he envisions will be ruined by physical reality or hidden past tragedy. In a contrasting scene of aristocratic caprice, a wealthy woman and her suitor enter a fortune-teller’s wagon, only to discover a lavishly prepared hideaway designed for secret romance. Throughout these varied scenes, the overarching narrative moves from innocence to exposure, laying bare the conflicts between public appearances and private desire.

How It Unfolds

A father's devotion Monsieur Parent sits in a sunlit public garden, watching his young son build sand pyramids with deep affection. He rushes home to avoid the wrath of his demanding wife, who openly mocks his gentle demeanor and secretly carries on an affair with his close friend.

The public confrontation Years after driving his unfaithful wife and her lover away, Parent encounters them in public. In a rage, he confronts the pair before his grown son, demanding to know which man is the true father, a question that has tortured him for decades.

The desperate vagrant Exhausted and rejected by local magistrates, the unemployed carpenter Randel is driven to madness by the smell of hot soup wafting from an open kitchen window. Overcome by hunger, he breaks into the quiet house to seize a meal.

An ill-fated gesture On a morning train ride, the timid linen-draper Morin mistakes a fellow passenger's polite smile for an invitation. He impulsively lunges to kiss her, causing a panic that leads to his immediate arrest at the next station.

A wedding night ambush A Normandy groom ventures out into the dark after hearing gunshots on his property. Hours later, his household finds him tied hand and foot in the woods, humiliated by local poachers who have hung dead hares around his neck.

The hidden burden A young farm girl, abandoned by her lover after he secretly leaves the region, conceals her growing pregnancy while performing heavy daily chores, terrified of the inevitable social ruin.

The disguised retreat A gentleman leads a refined lady into a rustic fortune-teller's wagon, revealing an interior transformed into an ornate private room filled with roses and champagne.

The People

• Monsieur Parent: A gentle, stout man turning gray who adores his young son. He desires domestic harmony and trust, but his accommodating nature earns only contempt from his wife, leaving him consumed by bitter anger and paternal uncertainty.
• Henriette Parent: Monsieur Parent's fair, small, Parisian wife. Born behind a shop, she resents her husband for marrying her and openly prefers her lover, taking pleasure in provoking her husband's ignorance.
• Paul Limousin: A tall, dark man with long whiskers and vulgar self-assurance. As Henriette's lover and Parent's pretended friend, he preys on Parent's trust while attempting to maintain his own social standing.
• George Parent: The son raised amidst his parents' estrangement. He grows up caught between the man who raised him and the lingering suspicion of his true parentage.
• Randel: A skilled carpenter turned vagrant. He wants honest employment and basic sustenance, but systematic rejection by local authorities drives him to desperation.
• Monsieur Morin: A timid provincial linen-draper. Desperate for romantic adventure yet woefully lacking in tact, his inept impulsiveness leads directly to public disgrace.
• Rose: A hardworking farm servant girl. After being seduced and abandoned by a fellow worker, she suffers in silent terror as she tries to hide her pregnancy from her employer.

In Its Own Voice

"He exasperates me every moment by his stupidity, which you call his kindness, by his dullness, which you call his confidence, and then, above all, because he is my husband, instead of you!"

Henriette expresses her deep resentment toward her husband while speaking privately with her lover.

"In heaven's name! they must give me some, this time."

Driven to desperation by intense hunger, the vagrant carpenter Randel resolves to force his way into a house for food.

"I love, and I am passionately loved, and few couples start on the unknown journey of a totally new life and enter into matrimony with such hopes..."

A expectant groom reflects nervously on his upcoming marriage, torn between deep affection and intense anxiety about the future.

What It's Really About

At its core, this volume investigates the profound friction between social convention and raw human instinct. It argues that beneath the polished veneer of marriage, respectability, and bourgeois propriety lies a reservoir of selfish desire, deception, and cruelty. The stories constantly question whether genuine intimacy is possible when societal structures force men and women into roles defined by ownership, money, or vanity. Hypocrisy remains the ultimate driving force: middle-class morality demands decorum, yet characters routinely indulge in betrayal and exploitation behind closed doors. Furthermore, the collection explores the helplessness of the individual against circumstances—whether a vagrant trapped by poverty or a husband tormented by psychological doubt—showing how easily human dignity dissolves when exposed to fear, hunger, or jealousy.

Why Read It Today

This collection appeals to readers who appreciate sharp, unvarnished character studies and precise prose that cuts straight to the vulnerabilities of human nature. Reading these stories feels like observing a series of vividly rendered, theatrical snapshots where every dialogue and gesture carries weight. The writing avoids romanticized idealism, offering instead an unsentimental examination of human behavior that remains striking for its psychological accuracy.

Modern readers should be prepared for period attitudes, including class biases, rigid gender roles, and casual cruelties that reflect nineteenth-century social structures. The stories do not shy away from harsh realities, depicting domestic bitterness, sexual coercion, and the bleak indifference faced by the poor. Yet, these difficulties are integral to the book's power. It does not offer easy moralizing or neat resolutions; instead, it presents an honest, enduring portrait of human flaws that feels remarkably relevant today.