(in english) MAUPASSANT "The Horla and other stories" France 1887

Kind :
Fantastic

Landscapes :

A little house in front of the river called "La Seine" near Paris , in a quiet street, just like in this paint by Sisley...

"The Horla" :

They are all beginning in the "normal" life. Then, a strange phenomenon happens. In the "Horla", it is an invisible presence, which follows everywhere the main character who becomes mad...In fact, Maupassant lets the reader decide if the character has really become mad, or if this strange presence really exists....

Other stories :

An écorché hand who belonged to a murderer, and who still kills, even without being linked to a body, the ghost of a beloved woman who appears to his husband , a woman who has a special receipt to give birth to abnormal childs to sell them to circus, an antics's buyer who falls in love with hairs founded in an old furniture.

In the "Endormeuse", Maupassant devellops an interesting idea which could be used in our epoch where the euthanasia is unfortunately the only charitable solution for the patients "cured" with palliatives cares waiting for death to come : A company which proposes to his customers to leave peacefuly this world in smelling the scent of his favorite flower...

Comments :

The writing is very pleasant, and gives a sensation of "luxurious", by his "ancient" side, when you are in a very comfortable armchair, with the tic tac of a horloge, just like your grand parent's house. We feels like home in this writing style, maybe just because the sceneries depicted are simple and usual....

For me, the only mistake in those texts is to begin aways the same way : "I think I am becoming insane, whereas I was a healthy person before. I will explain you what happened to me...." I find it a little bit boring....

By chance, these short stories become after that intro colourful and very "tasty".They give to the reader a lasting impress.... Maupassant really knows how to create a tension in his stories, from clichés : ghosts, monsters,.....

It is as simple as that : When you begin to read these very short stories, you just can't stop until you have finished the book......

Congratulations, Mr Maupassant, for these little jewels....