Guy de Maupassant

Considered Maupassant's greatest novel, "Pierre and Jean" is vivid, satirical, and emotionally profound. The Roland brothers, Pierre and Jean, have always been driven by competition. When a lawyer arrives at the house of their parents to declare that an old family friend has bestowed his entire fortune to Jean, the envy hastily becomes an ardent force for Pierre. Roaming the seaport of Le Havre alone, Pierre contemplates, desperate to come to terms...

Opulence is sometimes deceiving. Madame Mathilde Loisel is displeased, she cannot go to a fancy party because she doesn't have anything to wear. Her husband tries to help her and gives her money to buy a new dress. She insists she also needs jewels so she borrows a diamond necklace from her friend, Madame Jeanne Forestier. After the party, Mathilde realizes that she lost the stunning necklace.

The novel is set in Paris in the upper-middle class environment of the leading journalists of the newspaper La Vie Française and their friends. It tells the story of Georges Duroy, who has spent three years in military service in Algeria. After working for six months as a clerk in Paris, an encounter with his former comrade, Forestier, enables him to start a career as a journalist. From a reporter of minor events and soft news, he gradually climbs...