French writer of noble origin Guy de Maupassant, who managed to earn a huge fortune on literature. Incredibly loving, he wrote with pleasure and pleasure, transforming fleeting relationships with women into literary novellas and novels.
Carefree childhood
At birth in 1850, the Frenchman was named Henri-Rene-Albert-Guy. The Maupassant noble family lived in the luxurious Miromenil estate in the suburbs of the city of Dieppe. Despite the outward gloss, the family was poor, since the writer's grandfather had long gone bankrupt and doomed Gustave de Maupassant's father to everyday work. My father served at the stock exchange as a broker, but at the same time in life he remained faithful to his aesthetic taste, continuing to read art and even painting with his own watercolors. Maupassant's father was a dandy, and fame went about him as a burner of life.
His mother had known his father since childhood. Laura Le Poitvin, despite her seriousness and thoroughness, nevertheless accepted Gustave's marriage proposal at one time and even bore him two sons. However, the couple quickly broke up, immediately after the birth of their second son, Laura left the estate and moved with the children to their own villa in the town of Etretat.
Children spent time in idleness, they walked a lot, ran and frolicked, fished with pleasure on the coast, talked with local fishermen and farmers.
But at the age of 13, everything changed dramatically when Guy was sent to study at theological seminary. Maupassant did not like the strict rules and mentoring of teachers, and he made attempts to escape, played a lot of naughty and was restless. As a result, he was expelled from the seminary with the appropriate wording.
The mother sent her son to another school - the Rouen Lyceum. And the boy suddenly took root. He showed interest in both the exact sciences and art. He fell in love with books. The writer Gustave Flaubert became his true mentor and, in fact, the teacher of life. In the future, he will lay a fertile ground for the development of the writer's literary talent.
Service
After school, the future writer went to Paris, entered the university as a lawyer. But during this period, the war with Prussia began. The student was drafted into the army as a soldier. However, his passion for science remained and grew into love.
After the end of hostilities, Maupassant did not continue training, because the fees for a higher education institution were too expensive for the parents. But the way was opened to the Naval Ministry, where Henri-Rene-Albert-Guy served six full years for a very small salary. During this period, he was captured by a passion for literature, it became his goal and made him happy.
Without giving up his ministry, the future great writer began to create under the auspices of Flaubert. He wrote a lot and with rapture, then he destroyed what he had written and again proceeded to the work. Mentor Flaubert repeated to his student that in order to become great, one must daily devote oneself to the “muse” - only this will allow him to hone his pen! The first works could indeed be destroyed, since the "second father" of Maupassant Flaubert simply forbade him to publish.
Thanks to the patronage of the famous writer, Guy was transferred from the Ministry of the Navy to the Ministry of Education.
Becoming a writer
The first published short story by Maupassant was called "The Hand of a Corpse", it was published in the print press in 1875. The poem "On the Shore" was published under the same pseudonym. By the way, a few years later, this short story brought the author to the courtroom, since the supervisory committee classified the reprinted and renamed work "Girl" as a pornographic sketch. Gustave Flaubert again stood up for the student, writing an explanatory letter-review of the poem.
The story "Pyshka", which caused a stir, was published in 1880 in a collection of various authors. Now the works of the young author were side by side with the stories of such great prose writers as Emile Zola, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and others.
The story made an impression on the literary community, it was so good for its irony and bright, detailed characters. For recognition and the reader's love for Maupassant that suddenly flared up in the ministry at his place of service, he was given a six-month leave.
The "Pyshka" was followed by a collection of poems "Poems".
Guy then decided to leave the bureaucratic post and start a career in the newspaper.
Creation
In the 80s. the period of active creativity of Maupassant began. He found plots for his works, impressed by what he saw on his travels. He visited Algeria and Corsica, which resulted in magnificent short stories and novels. For example, the traditions and everyday life of the Corsicans formed the basis of Maupassant's book "Life".
Literary critics appreciate his best novels:
- "On the water"
- "Pierre and Jean",
- "Under the sun",
short stories and stories:
- "Will",
- "Necklace",
- "Moonlight".
The apogee of creativity was the novel "Dear Friend", he lifted Maupassant to the firmament of the star novelists of France.
Readers idolized Maupassant, who learned to earn money by devoting himself to his beloved work. Guy de Maupassant got rich. His annual income was 60 thousand francs, and this allowed him not to deny himself anything. Of course, he financially supported his mother and brother. By the end of his life, he had a fairly solid fortune, many houses, dozens of yachts.
What is the secret of the popularity of the writer? According to Emile Zola, Guy plays on feelings brilliantly. He conducts a very friendly dialogue with the reader, and humor and satire are subtle and harmless. Lev Tolstoy interpreted the Maupassant phenomenon differently: the Frenchman is a true connoisseur of love.
The writer was quite sociable and sincere in relations with close people, he made friends with eminent companions in the literary field: Paul Alexis, Ivan Turgenev, Leon Dierks and others.
Some of Maupassant's literary works were filmed, and the first to revive his work was Soviet cinema. The famous "Pyshka" with the light hand of the Russian director Mikhail Romm was released in 1934. Then there was a film adaptation of "Dear Friend" in 1936. The same work was again filmed by Pierre Cardinal in 1983. And in 2012, famous Hollywood actors Robert Pattinson and Uma Thurman starred in the film "Dear Friend" directed by Declan Donnellan.
Relationships and connections
Quite strange rumors circulated about the relationship between the writer and Flaubert. According to one of them, Flaubert and Maupassant's mother Laura had a secret love affair, as a result of which Guy himself appeared. According to another version, the old writer had a passion for the growing genius of literary naturalism, Maupassant. But none of the gossip has been confirmed so far.
Guy was a famous ladies' man and heartthrob. He loved all women and did not have serious feelings for any. Many random connections, dozens of novels, hundreds of adventures - all this became the basis of the plot lines of his literary works. The list of Maupassant's mistresses consisted of 300 women.
The writer tried not to disclose the names of his beloved to the press, and in fact, only the names of some of the ladies who have temporarily captured his heart are known: Countess Emmanuela Pototskaya, Marie Cannes, Ermina. Maupassant was so secretive that one day he offered to arrange a duel with a newspaper hack who published gossip about his new lover.
In 1882, 11 years before his death, Maupassant suddenly announced his marriage, but this marriage, for unknown reasons, never became a reality.
Death
At the end of his life, all his love affairs led to an incurable disease at that time - syphilis. He was optimistic about this, telling a friend in a letter: “I have real syphilis. A real, not a miserable runny nose … Now I'm not afraid to pick it up!.
He was treated with "medicines" traditional for the 19th century - mercury cyanide and potassium iodide. All this resulted in severe headaches, general weakness and outbreaks of neuroses. The doctors could not even imagine that all this could be signs of syphilis. Neuroses were treated with bed rest and trips to mineral springs. To no avail.
At this time, his younger brother Herve, who contracted syphilis while still in the army, completely lost his mind and was placed in a psychiatric hospital by Maupassant. Unfortunately, the same fate awaited Guy himself. But before that, he managed to become addicted to drugs - morphine and ether, with which doctors also treated his headaches and neuroses. In a psychiatric hospital, melancholy gave way to outbursts of delirium and rage.
He died in agony at the age of 43 with the words “Darkness! Oh, darkness ….
