technicist in the history of literature, to criticize. For seven years
Maupassant served this severe task-master, always writing, receiving
criticisms, and publishing nothing.

Immediately after the publication of his first story Maupassant was
hailed as a finished master artist. From 1880 to 1890 he published six
novels, sixteen volumes of short-stories, three volumes of travels,
and many newspaper articles. This gigantic task was performed only
because of his regular habits and splendid physique. He wrote
regularly every morning from seven o'clock until noon, and at night
always wrote out notes on the impressions from his experiences of the
day.

Maupassant was a natural artist deeply in love with the technique of
his work. He did not write for money, although he believed that a
writer should have plenty of this world's possessions, nor did he
write for art's sake. In fact he avoided talking on the subject of
writing and to all appearances seemed to despise his profession. He
wrote because the restless, immitigable force within him compelled him
to work like a slave. He thought little of morals, or religion, but
was enamored with physical life and its insolvable problems. He was,
above everything else, a truthful man. Sometimes his subjects are
unclean and he treats them as such, but, if his subject is clean, his
treatment is undefiled.

In 1887 the shadows of insanity began to creep athwart his life. Even
in 1884 he seemed to feel a premonition of his coming catastrophe when
he wrote: "I am afraid of the walls, of the furniture, of the familiar
objects which seem to me to assume a kind of animal life. Above all, I
fear the horrible confusion of my thought, of my reason escaping,