Ten stories -- "The Lancer's Wife," "Hautot Senior and Hautot Junior," "No Quarter," "The Orphan," "A Lively Friend," "The Blind Man," "The Impolite Sex," "The Cake," "The Corsican Bandit," and "The Duel" -- from Guy de Maupassant complete this volume. Guy de Maupassant is regarded as one of the world's master short fiction writers. A civil servant, Maupassant spent most of his free time pursuing women; women figure in most of his stories -- as prostitutes, wives, servants, and catalysts for tragedy. Maupassant's own gradual descent into syphilitic madness probably influenced the paranoia and unreality of many of his tales. Few, if any, have ever mastered his economy of style, or ability to observe and record the human condition. The title story is strange and unnaturally moving. In twists of fate that are the hallmarks of Maupassant's work, an act of mercy emerges amid war and hatred and a Prussian woman and a Frenchwoman are linked forever.

Author Biography

Henri Rene Albert Guy de Maupassant (1850 - 1893) was a French writer, remembered as a master of the short story form and as a representative of the naturalist school of writers, who depicted human lives and destinies and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms. Maupassant was a protege of Flaubert and his stories are characterized by economy of style and efficient, effortless denouements (outcomes). Many are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s, describing the futility of war and the innocent civilians who, caught up in events beyond their control, are permanently changed by their experiences. He wrote some 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books and one volume of verse. His first published story, "Boule de Suif" ("Ball of Fat," 1880), is often considered his masterpiece.