Customer Reviews

The Best Short Stories (Classics Library)

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anyone who's tried to learn a foreign language knows that the early stages involve a lot of frustration. It helps to practice speaking as much as possible, but conversation without a good vocabulary can be really tedious. That's why dual-language books are such a valuable resource. They allow the reader to learn lots of new words without memorizing lists or flipping through dictionaries.

Dual-language books are even better when they happen to be great literature, as is clearly the case with Guy De Maupassant's short stories. Despite being written in the 19th century, the collection will be of interest to 21st century readers. In fact the last story in this collection (The Horla) reads like a modern-day ghost story.

The only downside is that the text often makes use of a literary verb tense that may be confusing to beginning students of grammar. But this is a problem with all written French, and shouldn't dissuade the motivated student. This book, along with the dual-language version of Voltaire's Candide, is definitely recommended for the intermediate-level student of French.

Useful both for English and French advanced students, in their search for Literature progress. Stories which are sometimes dramatic, sometimes funny, but always artfully written.

Many of the reviews of this book focus on the fact that it features both French and English. By contrast I will discuss it as a piece of literature.

Guy de Maupassant, along with Anton Chekov and O. Henry, is widely regarded as the best writer of short stories in modern literature. The Classics Library edition of The Best Short Stories provides ample proof of this judgment. A total of 17 stories are presented including his most famous ones (The Necklace, The Piece of String) and perhaps his best (Boule de Soif). But all of these stories are wonderful. They are full of humor, tragedy, satire, love, disappointment, despair, in short the full range of human emotions and experiences are covered by a talented and perceptive writer.

On of the best aspects of the book is the great diversity in the stories. One theme that Maupassant returns to the brutality of war. But this viciousness is shown by its effects on individuals, not in a massive scale. For example, Two Friends tells of two men who enjoy fishing together. In the story their fishing place is under Prussian control and they are arrested and accused as spies. Madamoiselle Fifi relates how war brings out the worst in men. Boule de Suif shows how "respectable" people react to adversity. Depression, despondency and the negative effects of unrequited love are further themes explored by Maupassant. Two Little Soldiers shows what happens when two friends are split by the love of a woman. Madamoiselle Pearl tells a tale of unrecognized and unreturned love. The Olive Orchard treats of what happens when an early discretion comes back to haunt you. Miss Harriet, perhaps the saddest tale of all, tells of a woman who finds fulfillment in nature and then discovers love only to have it come crashing down on her.

But humor also can be found in these stories. That Pig of a Morin pokes good fun at a shopkeeper who commits a sexual faux pax and as a result becomes the butt of jokes among his friends and neighbors. Madame Hussan's "Rosier" tells what can happen when virtue is rewarded. A Sale is a ribald tale in which a husband tries to sell his wife to another man.

The final story, Happiness, is perhaps the most satisfying. It relates a simple story of a young woman of means who gives up wealth and a life of ease for the love of an ordinary peasant and the joys of their long life together.

All in all, these stories will warm your heart and touch your soul.

Contrary to all silly 19th Century notions of linguistics and Saxon ethnicity, English and French are remarkably similar languages, with over 70% of their vocabularies cognate, and with essentially the same grammar except for the fading conjugations of French. YOU, whoever you are, can learn to read French in a matter of weeks. Note that I didn't say SPEAK French, just read it. If you have Spanish or Italian under your collar, you can read French already but you just don't know it.

These seven stories by Guy de Maupassant represent the author's scope and skill. Maupassant is out of fashion, both in the USA and in France, but his Gallic non-judgemental humanism is still worth encountering. You won't be able to follow the French without a few hours of basic grammar, which you can learn at the computer with the appropriate "Transparent Language" software. But once you can struggle through a single paragraph, you'll be staring at a new world of pleasure in reading. Trust me, French literature is even better than you thought it was from translation.

It's a life what Guy De Maupassant describes in his books, that's why they're immortals.Could the prostitute be a patriot? What does respectable member of society and a killer at the same time feel? What's happening when the person's been blinded by passion? What kind of relationship exists between the ton?Maupassant tells us his stories like great psychologist and very talented writer.And don't miss his really powerful novels "Pier and Jan" and "A life"!I like Stendhal, Zola, Balzak and Dumas but Guy De Maupassant is my favourite French writer!

This page has information about both an English-only version of the book and a French version with English translations. I ordered the English-only after reading the reviews that were about the French/English version! What a waste.

The French/English version is here:Best Short Stories / Les Meilleurs Contes (A Dual-Language Book) (English and French Edition).

I'm not certain the purpose of putting these two different versions together, but obviously I should have been paying more attention.

the dual language book is a great idea, it saves so much time if you want to look up a translation. the drawback is that the translation has to be extremely close to the text, making it less enjoyable to read. thus, it is an excellent book if you plan to read the whole french version, and use the english version for support only.

Maupassant is an exceptional author. I haven't finished the book yet, but I like the quality of his stories. There are so many French, and well as Italian and Russian authors, each with a different style. He is more enjoyable than most.

great, becoming rusty, good refresher by master os french prose. much in thanks merci, peter

To write a review on Maupassant is flirting with arrogance. He is one of the all time greats, one whose stories retain their power a century after they were written, and will continue to do for in the millenia to come. Maupassant was a man who lived his life to the full, and was able to translate life to words.