Description
Book SynopsisWidely considered to be the greatest short story writer in all of French literature, Guy de Maupassant helped define the modern short story, deeply influencing the likes of Chekhov, Maugham, Babel and O. Henry. Yet despite his mastery of the form, existing English translations render his prose in an archaic style. Convinced that this protege of Flaubert deserved to be modernised in the same way that Lydia Davis had brought
Madame Bovary to life, Sandra Smith selected twenty-eight classic Maupassant short stories, written between 1880 and 1890, including “Le Horla” and “Boule de Suif”. Divided thematically into tales of French life, war and the supernatural,
The Necklace and Other Stories promises to reintroduce Maupassant to twenty-first-century readers.
Trade Review"Smith successfully captures Maupassant's depiction of 19th-century French culture using terminology that allows these wonderful texts to reach a fresh generation of readers. A solid translation of some wonderful short stories." -- Erica Swenson Danowitz - Library Journal, Starred review "Sandra Smith has a sterling reputation for shaking the dust off previous translations while leaving the meaning and the feeling of a classic work of literature intact. She has succeeded again with this beloved collection of stories by Maupassant and delivered in English the vitality and excitement his first nineteenth-century French readers appreciated." -- Alice Kaplan, John M. Musser Professor of French, Yale University or author of Dreaming in French
