Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale

By Guy de Maupassant (Translated by Sian Miles)

No. 15 Penguin Little Black Classics published 26 February 2015

Yes, it's another Little Black Classic and now I will tell you why I had a small binge on these books...I was visiting a relative in hospital. It was a two-bus journey and my mind needed to be occupied but not by too much for long. The Little Black Classics saved me from staring out of the bus window and imagining the worst (my relative recovered 😊).

This LBC took me to 19th century Paris. Ooh la la! Penguin describe de Maupassant as "...the father of the modern short story" and after the enjoyment I found in the Kate Chopin LBC I was very much looking forward to these four shorts.

Cockcrow is an amusing little tale of a man's shortcomings.

Femme Fatale describes an afternoon's boating and an evening encounter with lesbian couples, much to Senator's son Paul Baron's disgust. He has forbade his companion Madeleine from associating with them and his homophobia and jealousy ends in tragedy.

Hautot & Son begins at a partridge shoot where Hautot senior is mortally wounded. his deathbed confession to his son reveals he has a girl in Rouen he has visited every Thursday for six years and asked if his son would look after her. Shocked but resolved, the son visits and does what he can for the woman, and his half-brother he discovers there.

Laid to Rest is a tale told by life-of-the-party Joseph de Bardon about a chance encounter he makes in Montmartre Cemetery. Now, this may sound a little odd but the description of the cemetery is wonderful. I visited Pere Lachaise Cemetery a few years ago whilst on holiday in Paris and Parisian cemeteries are well worth a walk around for the care and creativity as much as the occupants. If I get to return to Paris, Montmartre's is on my to-visit list! Anyway, back to Joseph who happens to meet a very distressed widow at the grave of her husband. A short liaison ensues until one day he happens upon her in that very cemetery being supported in her grief by another man altogether.

The stories were entertaining, fun and very, very French! They gave me much needed light relief and I am looking forward to reading more of de Maupassant's work.