Guy de Maupassant

Name: Stories by Foreign Authors
Author: Guy de Maupassant

Stories by Foreign Authors (1898 (Ed. 1917))

Summary

“Stories by Foreign Authors”, published in 1898 (Ed. 1917), is a work by Guy de Maupassant. It explores elements such as necklace, Loisel and jeweller.

Quotes from Stories by Foreign Authors (Guy de Maupassant)

Guy de Maupassant, Stories by Foreign Authors (1898 (Ed. 1917))

“ SHE was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if by a mistake of destiny, born in a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded, by any rich and distinguished man; and she let herself be married to a little clerk at the Ministry of Public Instruction. She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was as unhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank; and beauty, grace, and charm act instead of family and birth. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Guy de Maupassant, Stories by Foreign Authors (1898 (Ed. 1917))

“ Loisel looked old now. She had become the woman of impoverished households—strong and hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew, and red hands, she talked loud while washing the floor with great swishes of water. But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down near the window, and she thought of that gay evening of long ago, of that ball where she had been so beautiful and so feted.
What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? who knows? How life is strange and changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Guy de Maupassant, Stories by Foreign Authors (1898 (Ed. 1917))

“ Natural fineness, instinct for what is elegant, suppleness of wit, are the sole hierarchy, and make from women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.
She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Guy de Maupassant, Stories by Foreign Authors (1898 (Ed. 1917))

“ He threw over her shoulders the wraps which he had brought, modest wraps of common life, whose poverty contrasted with the elegance of the ball dress. She felt this and wanted to escape so as not to be remarked by the other women, who were enveloping themselves in costly furs.
Loisel held her back.
"Wait a bit. You will catch cold outside. I will go and call a cab." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Guy de Maupassant, Stories by Foreign Authors (1898 (Ed. 1917))

“ Then they went from jeweller to jeweller, searching for a necklace like the other, consulting their memories, sick both of them with chagrin and with anguish.
They found, in a shop at the Palais Royal, a string of diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the one they looked for. It was worth forty thousand francs. They could have it for thirty-six. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Guy de Maupassant, Stories by Foreign Authors (1898 (Ed. 1917))

“ Loisel returned at night with a hollow, pale face; he had discovered nothing.
"You must write to your friend," said he, "that you have broken the clasp of her necklace and that you are having it mended. That will give us time to turn round." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Guy de Maupassant, Stories by Foreign Authors (1898 (Ed. 1917))

“ She thought of the long salons fitted up with ancient silk, of the delicate furniture carrying priceless curiosities, and of the coquettish perfumed boudoirs made for talks at five o'clock with intimate friends, with men famous and sought after, whom all women envy and whose attention they all desire. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Guy de Maupassant, Stories by Foreign Authors (1898 (Ed. 1917))

“ And try to have a pretty dress."
The day of the ball drew near, and Mme. Loisel seemed sad, uneasy, anxious. Her dress was ready, however. Her husband said to her one evening:
"What is the matter? Come, you've been so queer these last three days,"
And she answered:
"It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress. I should almost rather not go at all"
He resumed:
"You might wear natural flowers. It's very stylish at this time of the year. For ten francs you can get two or three magnificent roses." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Guy de Maupassant, Stories by Foreign Authors (1898 (Ed. 1917))

“ Loisel's company at the palace of the Ministry on Monday evening, January 18th."
Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she threw the invitation on the table with disdain, murmuring:
"What do you want me to do with that?"
"But, my dear, I thought you would be glad. You never go out, and this is such a fine opportunity. I had awful trouble to get it. Every one wants to go; it is very select, and they are not giving many invitations to clerks. The whole official world will be there." ”

Guy de Maupassant

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Quotes from Stories by Foreign Authors (Guy de Maupassant)

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