Boule de Suif | The Finest Short Story?
In the following essay, the critic argues that de Maupassant’s writing is dazzling but lacks imagination.
De Maupassant was, of course, a born writer. Observe, writer. No one ever said what he wanted to say with a nicer exactitude or a more certain effectiveness than did de Maupassant. The sentence was a marvellous tool in his hands. But, having admitted that, one has the right to inquire: what did he want to say? What of importance had he seen? We cannot believe, for ourselves, that de Maupassant’s imagination and insight were of the first order, or even of the second order. His philosophy was a Parisian cynicism. His spirit was happy in that world of sense which the greatest...
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