The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-07-09
GUY DE MAUPASSANT.

Maupassant was AZ when he died,
Andre Chenier 80. The one wrote novels.
the other verse; yet there was so much
harmony between the two lives that lite
rary history will be likely to class them
together. Both went to their graves with
a purpose unfuliled. AS be stepped into
the tumbril poor Chenier said. II have
done nothing for posterity; yet" tapping
his forehead. Il think l have something
there" So Maupassant, charming as his
short stories are and noble his novels
Fort CONNIE la Mort" and pierre ct
Jean"-did not live to fulfill the promise
of his youthful genius. There was more
in him than ever came out.
MaupasSant enjoyed rare opportunities
and had rare qualifications. He had suf-
ficient means TO escape the bellttling IN
fluence of literary drudgery. He was a
Norman, with all the physical and mental
vigOr of that stalwart race, and yet he
possessed the fiery temperament and
gorgeous fancy of son of the South. he
became at an early age disciple OF Gus
tave Flaubert, whose Madame &c b.
vary" and "Salambo'' had raised him TO
the front rank among writers Of fiction
lola was known. The young aspirant TO
fame could not have been apprenticed to
more conscientious master. For seven long
years Flaubert read everything that Maui
PEASANT wrote and-cOndemned everything.
Not that all was bad, but that he felt sure
the pupil could do better; thus when
Maupassant made his first appeal to the
public he was as ripe as most writer's are
after they have published dozen works.
His style was chaste, severe. glowing.
His mind was trained to obey orders. His
memory was replete with the performance
of his predecessors in the field in which he
was to work. He had made an analytical
study of human nature; he had dlssected
the human heart as carefully as BaiZac
had done and as lola was destined to do.
1t cannot truthfully be said, as some
have affirmed, that he was the founder Of
the realist school, for Baizac was master
of realism. But he was one of its most
successful disciples. He painted from
life. His pictures appeal to the eye. and
from them sink into the mind. He not
only knew how to draw but VIII at to draw.
1t is profitable to compare his short stories
with those of two writer's in our tongue
at the present day-Rudyard Kipling and
Hamlin Garland. Both are past masters
of the art of description. For the great
mass Of the English-speaking public Kip
ling has created India, as Parkman ere
ated Canada. He who has read 1.-THE
City of the Dreadful Night" or 1.-The Man
That Was" has entered new world and
will never forget what he saw there. In
like manner Hamin Garland takes US by
the hand and leads us out on the prairies.
where the vigorous western breeze sweeps
over the cornfeld and hocks of prairie
chickens toot as they float laZily through
the air. We see the scene. and under his
guidance we learn to know the rugged
virile race that has grown up on those
long stretches Of rich fiat land.
Maupassant. like Garland, painted the
people among whom he lived. By long
and patient observation he had grown to
know his Parsans so that he could feel
certain how they would act under given
circumstances. He had taken the meas
ure Of their thoughts and impulses and
hopes and fears and metho DDS; and bis
literary training had been so severe that
he could say what he wanted to say in
clear. elegant and graphic phrase. Where
he could he painted from life The story
of "Pierre ct Jean" is mainly borrowed
from his own painful family experience.
1t was to stimulate his fancy, when he
suspected it was fading, that he resorted
to the use of the drugs which destroyed
his reason and at last terminated his life.
If he had been content with his splendid
natural powers he might have led glori-
Gus life and might have attained the SUI
premacy Of French letters.
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