"How about if you could make a living doing the things you love?"
A Portfolio Life
  • Home
  • Working
  • Writing
  • Gambling

Guy de Maupassant

8/2/2017

0 Comments

 
"I think there may have been a short period many,many years ago, certainly before I found John Cheever, when I would declare Guy de Maupassant to be the greatest short-story teller of them all. Also, it's quite possible I did this without bothering to read any of his stories. And - zut alors - it turns out I was right all along – which just goes to show you don't need to have read the form to pick the winner."

I wrote the above as a tongue-in-cheek Amazon review of  Femme Fatale, published as part of the brilliant Penguin Little Black Classic series a couple of years ago. Yesterday, I thought I'd have a bash at one of his novels - A Woman's Life - having picked up an old Penguin Classics edition from the local charity shop.

On reaching page four, I came across the following paragraph. It started so promisingly, the ending seemed all the more startling:

"There was silence in the carriage; their minds seemed drowned like the earth. Mama was leaning back with closed eyes supporting her head; the Baron kept a gloomy eye on the featureless soaked country-side, and Rosalie with a parcel on her knee was dreaming the sub-human dreams of peasant folk." 

Huh?  

I stopped reading books in translation many years ago, precisely because of stuff like this. It was only the Little Black Classics that brought me back. Prior to that, I'd find myself hung up on single lines, wondering what was the author's real intention. Like now. I'm thinking he might be saying something more like 'the simple dreams of simple folk.' If anyone has a different translation, or fancies a bash at one from the French, or can confirm this is exactly what Maupassant meant, I'd be interested to know.

​Right now, I'm doubtful of ever getting to page five...

 


   
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Writing

     LuluCurrent state of play:


    1. Indifferent Voices
    Out now in paperback.

    Buy Here Amazon
    Or Here Lulu

    Picture

    2. One Dog and His Man. Out now in paperback.
    Buy here ​
    Picture
    3. Farewell Trip.
    Published by Carina UK.
    Buy here:
    Picture
    4.  Silly Verse for  Grown Ups
    Buy here:
    Picture
    Click here to buy it on Amazon

    Archives

    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Belly Pork
    Cancer
    Cats And Dogs
    England
    Farewell Trip
    Film And Tv
    Getting Published
    Indifferent Voices
    Julian Barnes
    Karin
    Kemberton
    London
    Lyrics
    Music
    Nimbyism
    One Dog And His Man
    Poetry
    Politics
    Red Wine
    Rejection
    Running
    Salad
    Shifnal
    Shropshire
    Silly Stuff
    Slugs
    Sport
    Vegetables
    Works In Progress
    Writing Novels
    Writing Novels

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly