the facts with subtle gradation, in bringing in at the end of a
familiar dialogue something startlingly dramatic; but such
composition, with him, seems easy, and while the descriptions are
marvelously well established in his stories, the reverse is true
of Flaubert's, which always appear a little veneered.
Maupassant's phrasing, however dramatic it may be, remains easy
and flowing.

Maupassant always sought for large and harmonious rhythm in his
deliberate choice of terms, always chose sound, wholesome
language, with a constant care for technical beauty. Inheriting
from his master an instrument already forged, he wielded it with
a surer skill. In the quality of his style, at once so firm and
clear, so gorgeous yet so sober, so supple and so firm, he equals
the writers of the seventeenth century. His method, so deeply and
simply French, succeeds in giving an indescribable "tang" to his
descriptions. If observation from nature imprints upon his tales
the strong accent of reality, the prose in which they are shrined
so conforms to the genius of the race as to smack of the soil.

It is enough that the critics of to-day place Guy de Maupassant
among our classic writers. He has his place in the ranks of pure
French genius, with the Regniers, the La Fontaines, the Molieres.
And those signs of secret ill divined everywhere under this
wholesome prose surround it for those who knew and loved him with
a pathos that is inexpressible. {signature}

INTRODUCTION

BORN in the middle year of the nineteenth century, and fated