The Story Archive

Bel-Ami

Guy de Maupassant · 1885 CE · Novel · French · Victorian

A discharged cavalry sergeant down to his last francs in Paris runs into an old comrade from Algeria who has become a newspaperman and offers him a start. He cannot write a paragraph, but he is looked at, and he learns that the wives of the men above him will write it for him and open the doors besides. Maupassant knew the press of the 1880s from the inside and took the paper, its proprietor and its politics from life.

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Attributes

Genre
SatirePsychological
Theme
Ambition & HubrisWealth & GreedPower & CorruptionVanity & Beauty
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Anti-HeroTricksterLover
Plot structure
Rags to RichesPicaresque
Symbol / motif
The CityThe MirrorGold / Treasure
Conflict
vs Societyvs Person
Mode / tone
IronicRealistSatirical
Culture / tradition
French

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