The Necklace, a Maupassant masterpiece renowned for it’s pathos and shocking ending, tells of Mathilde, who aspires to high society despite being married to a low-paid clerk. When her husband manages to cadge an invitation to a grand ball at the Ministry of Education, Mathilde refuses to attend unless she can look the part. She obtains a splendid gown, but then demands a necklace to go with it. Thus she borrows a diamond necklace from a friend and so their troubles begin. This volume also includes two more Maupassant classics: The Piece of String , in which an indignant villager is wrongly accused of stealing a pocketbook, and Mouche , a poignant portrait of five merry bargemen and the woman who joins them on their journeys up and down the Seine, loving each of them freely.

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was born in Normandy, France. With his acquaintance Gustave Flaubert as his mentor, he began writing in his late twenties, and by his early thirties he was an acknowledged master of the short-story form. He wrote 300 stories in addition to novels, travel books and poetry.

---

ISBN 9781911475293 – Paperback – 110mm x 140 mm – 64 pages
 – £2.99