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Guy de Maupassant: Bel-Ami

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Mar 10, 2024
Category: Fiction

George — the kind of handsome guy from the country who, for lack of a better thing to do, joins the Army — finshes his military service without a prospect in the world. He moves to the big city, because that’s where opportunity lies. But he gets a lousy job and is totally frustrated.

One evening he runs into Charles, an old Army buddy who’s now a newspaper editor. Charles has an idea: George should write up his wartime experiences, Charles will publish them, and then George will have some business and social credibility.

One problem: George can’t write.

No problem: Charles’s wife will help him.

She does. A job follows. And social invitations. And rich lovers. And thus begins George’s rise to the top.

We’ve read this story before, haven’t we? More often than not, the main character is a woman; her beauty is her calling card, and then her wit and charm do the rest. A man who uses women is a nice twist on an old story.

Indeed, it’s the story of “Bel-Ami,” the novel that was Guy de Maupassant’s masterpiece. Publication date: 1885. [To buy the paperback or Kindle from Amazon, click here.]

If you think of de Maupassant at all, it’s as a short-story writer. Somewhere in your education, you read The Necklace and thought de Maupassant was something like O.Henry. Fair enough — de Maupassant did write some 300 short stories, and many of them end with a wry twist. [To buy “The Necklace and Other Stories” from Amazon, click here.]

But de Maupassant was so much more than that.

For one thing, Gustave Flaubert was his mentor; for readers who have savored the flawless storytelling in “Madame Bovary,” that says a lot. Through Flaubert, he met Zola, Turgenev and Henry James. And unlike Georges Duroy, the main character of “Bel-Ami,” de Maupassant had no difficulty getting published, making money — or finding amusing women.

In the 1870s, de Maupassant contracted syphilis; by the 1880s, as he was writing “Bel-Ami,” he knew he was doomed. So he poured everything into the book — from a bitingly realistic philosophy of life to some of the hottest romantic scenes in 19th century fiction. Then he tried to kill himself by cutting his throat. He was put in a mental hospital and died the following year — at age 43.

The glory of “Bel-Ami” (French for “good friend”) is the exquisite merger of story, character and style. Though you will probably detest George and his methods — think of a super-slick George Hamilton — the story moves so fast and the writing is so clean and the smut is just so evocative that you hurtle on despite yourself. There’s a dinner party in a Paris restaurant, where good wine and fine food and some ribald suggestions from George enflame the two couples, and then there’s a carriage ride back to the home of George’s married dinner companion…..

But it is not that George is a predator and the women are easy prey. In Paris in the l870s and 1880s, many are married and bored; these women know what they’re doing. A few are virtuous; George ruins them. And then there is Madeleine, the wife of his friend the newspaper editor. She’s smart and cool and modern as Prada. Listen to her:

Marriage, to me, is not a chain but an association. I must be free, entirely unfettered, in all my actions, my coming and my going; I can tolerate neither control, jealousy, nor criticism as to my conduct. I pledge my word, however, never to compromise the name of the man I marry, nor to render him ridiculous in the eyes of the world. But that man must promise to look upon me as an equal, an ally, and not as an inferior, or as an obedient, submissive wife. My ideas, I know, are not like those of other people, but I shall never change them.

She sees through George — or does she? I don’t want to spoil the story, but you’ll think quite a lot about a choice she makes late in the book. And about George’s visit to his parents. And an amazing painting that’s unveiled at a rich man’s party. About mothers and daughters, and this guy’s eagerness to seduce them both. About — but there’s no end to it. “Bel-Ami” is just one of those books that’s hard to put down. The faster he rises, the worse he behaves; you can’t wait to see how George will be punished for his crimes against women.

And then you get to the ending. Suddenly you have to consider the morality of these characters — and your own — all over again. How annoying!