GUY DE MAUPASSANT

Pierre & Jean

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY CLARA DELL

WITH A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION
BY THE EARL OF CREWE

A FRONTISPIECE AND NUMEROUS

OTHER PORTRAITS WITH

DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY

OCTAVE UZANNE

P. F. COLLIER cV SON
NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, I9O2
BY D. APPCETON fc COMPANY

GUY DE MAUPASSANT

In the long portrait-gallery of men of letters there are many figures, including some of the most famous, which in one aspect, at any rate, have baffled the analysis of countless critics. The rela- tion between the training of these writers and their art, between the lives they led and the work they did, between their surroundings and their message, remains untraced and obscure despite every effort of loving or malicious research. Thus, above all others, it is with Shakespeare ; and thus it would remain if every fact of his daily existence were known to us. Thus, in differing degrees and for various reasons, it is with Cervantes and Swift, with Keats and with Heine. Others, on the con- trary, stand out clearly as the best product of the particular set of circumstances grouped about their lives. They seem to be the finished result of a given up-bringing, of a precise tutelage, and of a chosen career. Of this second category Guy de
Maupassant is a singularly complete example.

Romances 1 v V0L . 19

Guy de Maupassant

Any difficulty in classifying his genius, or in esti- mating the permanency of his fame, arises from no mystery enshrouding his life or his work. The evolution of each is absolutely straightforward and coherent : he traversed no " caverns measureless to man " on his way to the sunless sea which engulfed him at last. Through his single volume of verse, through his six novels, through the multitude of his short stories and feiiilletons , the succeeding phases of a not very eventful life can be unerringly traced, like the path of an explorer on