I'll only remind you that he was born on August 5, 1850, near Dieppe, in the castle of Miromesnil, which he portrays in Une Vie... He died on July 25, 1893, at the age of 46, in Paris. Maupassant was born into a wealthy family. His father was a notary public who had also been elected mayor of Dieppe for several terms. When Maupassant was nine years old, his father was appointed prosecutor in Normandy, and the family moved to Rouen. There they lived in a large house on Place de la Poissonnerie, which now bears an apartment building with a plaque commemorating Maupassant's stay there. He attended the college of lawyers in Rouen but was expelled for attacking a fellow student with a chair. Afterwards, he worked as a clerk in various offices before being appointed legal adviser to a newspaper in Étretat. In 1875, he was offered a post as secretary at the Ministry of Justice in Paris, but gave up this job to write full time. His first story was published in L'Écho de Paris in April 1880. Two more stories followed in the same magazine the next year. In June 1882, Le Gaulois published his first novel, Pierre et Jean, which became a great success.