Product Description

'His rise testifies to the decline of a whole society.' Jean-Paul Sartre Maupassant's second novel, Bel-Ami (1885) is the story of a ruthlessly ambitious young man (Georges Duroy, christened 'Bel-Ami' by his female admirers) making it to the top in fin-de-siècle Paris. It is a novel about money, sex, and power, set against the background of the politics of the French colonization of North Africa. It explores the dynamics of an urban society uncomfortably close to our own and is a devastating satire of the sleaziness of contemporary journalism. Bel-Ami enjoys the status of an authentic record of the apotheosis of bourgeois capitalism under the Third Republic. But the creative tension between its analysis of modern behaviour and its identifiably late nineteenth-century fabric is one of the reasons why Bel-Ami remains one of the finest French novels of its time, as well as being recognized as Maupassant's greatest achievement as a novelist.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #348860 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Margaret Mauldon has previously translated Zola, L'Assommoir, Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma, Huysmans, Against Nature (winner of the 1999 Scott Moncrieff prize) and Constant, Adolphe for OWC

Customer Reviews

Dashing Hero Cuts a Comic Swathe through Paris Society
Guy de Maupassant does not suffer fools or the hipocrisy of (usually bourgoise) society gladly, and thus this, his romping satire that lifts the lid on Parisian society, is a comic tale with rapier wit, sly mocking, and a wonderful appetite for the absurd. Live vicariously through our vain and dashing hero on the make as he cuts a swathe through high society, wowing and wooing all in his path.
Frank descriptions of the sexual desires and all-so-often-acted-upon indiscretions of the book's characters - in spite of the social refinements and etiquette of the age - adds to its contemporary or timeless feel.
Warning: this could not be much further from the likes of Jane Austen. This is no romantic stroll through the picturesque, but a highly intelligent, constantly amsuing, dare I say it rock'n'roll swagger through the offices, nightclubs, parlours and boudoirs of 19th century Paris. And yet, it should be noted, that this book is not without moving moments and depth. Its characters are not merely caricatures, its (not always but often subtle) satire is not at the expense of reader empathy and real emotion.
If I was to read any book one more time, it would probably be A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway, and halfway through I'm pretty sure I would be wishing I'd chosen this instead. Quite simply brilliant.

Bel Ami- An opinion
A stark and vivd picture of one man's ruthless ascendancy through the social ranks. A rise that really erases all other thoughts within the young Georges as he throws aside the feelings and emotions of all others around him in persuit of his goals. It is in essence a story of success but manages at the same time to demonstrate the negative side effects that success can produce on others who find themselves in the way of that determined and efficient rise. A wonderful story and really one that may find its place far more readily in our society today than one may first think.

Brilliant book - the absolute business
This book is just fantastic.

You can read this on the bus and people think you're some sort of intellectual because of the 'Penguin Classic' cover, but actually it's like Jackie Collins. I love the central character. What a rat !!

Best book I've read this year.

(And it does have serious points to make about the media, death, marrying your best friend's wife....)