GUY DE MAUPASSANT Article by Matt Cowan

Guy de Maupassant was born in France in 1850.  He was a student of French novelist Gustave Flaubert. De Maupassant left studying law to join in the army during The Franco-Prussian War.  He wrote a lot of short stories and has been widely regarded as one of the true masters of the form.  Some of his tales would fall into the category of horror or weird fiction.  He suffered from syphilis starting in his 20’s.  The years of dealing with it may have contributed to his attempting suicide by cutting his throat late in life.  After the attempt he was committed to an asylum, where he remained for 18 months until he died in 1893.  During that time he wrote a number of his supernatural tales.

1- “The Horla” (1887) – Of his supernatural tales, this is probably his most popular one.  It was adapted for the CBS Radio Mystery Program in 1974 (Feb. 22) and by Inner Sanctum Mysteries in 1941 (May 9). It is about a man looking out his window at boats passing through the Seine and sees an impressive Brazilian ship.  For reasons he isn’t completely sure of, he salutes it.  Soon afterwards he starts to feel feverish, ill, and depressed.  As time goes on he starts to sense an invisible presence around him and has nightmares of some creature climbing atop him and strangling him in his bed at night.  Later he senses it following him as he walks through the forest during the day.  He leaves to travel for a while, and the darkness that had befallen him vanished until he returns.  While he was gone one of his servants suffered the way he had before leaving.  A local man tells him that lately people have heard strange bleating voices on the wind, and some have claimed to see a shepherd leading two goats, one with the face of a man and one with the face of a woman.  Both had long white hair and were arguing in an unknown language.   The illness, depression and nightmares assail him anew upon his return to his home.  It worsens, and soon he begins to feel dominated by the invisible entity.  While I am generally not a big fan of vampire stories but I found this one to be unique and enjoyable.

2- “Was It A Dream?” (1887) – A man in deep mourning due to the recent death of his beloved wife, hides out in the graveyard where her body now lies in order to spend the evening crying at her grave.  One night he sneaks into the graveyard after the cemetery has closed but has difficulty finding his way back to her tomb.  On the way, he witnesses the dead emerging from their graves in order to alter their epitaph’s to reflect secret evil deeds from their former lives.  When he comes across his deceased wives tomb, it reveals a dark secret about her and her death.

3-“Who Knows?” (1890) - A man, who likes to be alone (Maupassant himself was this way), returns to his secluded estate after attending a play one evening.  When he opens his door he witnesses every piece of furniture he owns animated to life and marching out of the house.  He tries to halt their movements to no avail.  He reports it as a theft, but no one is found, and he chooses to keep what he saw to himself for fear of being committed.  To relieve the mental strain that the whole thing has put him under, he travels abroad.  To his shock he discoveries his missing pieces in a second hand furniture ran by a mysterious owner.  This is a truly bizarre tale of fantasy that I found quite enjoyable.

4- “The Flayed Hand” (?) – A young student acquires a decrepit, severed hand from a deceased shaman and keeps it as a weird treasure, until the hands owner comes looking for it.

5-“Vendetta” by Guy de Maupassant (?) – A woman vows to get revenge on the man who stabbed her son to death.  There is no one other than herself and her son’s loyal dog to exact that vengeance, so she comes up with a violent plan to carry out her Vendetta.

6-“The Hostelry” (?) – Two men take the job of caretakers for an inn in the mountains during the rough winter season when it is closed.  It is a five-month commitment where they will be utterly secluded.  They pass their days playing cards, tending a dog they brought as an extra companion, and the older man often goes hunting in the mountainous region.  When the old man fails to return one night, the other takes his dog and goes searching for him, but the area is vast and the wintry weather terrible.  He returns to the inn despondent.   He begins to hear his name being called from outside the inn and believes it to be the ghost of his lost comrade.  Trapped in the inn alone with his dog, he begins to believe something outside wants him, something horrible and dead. 

Technorati Tags: Books and Authors