Ball of Fat
()
About this ebook
Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant was a nineteenth-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, who depicted human lives, destinies, and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms. He was a protégé of Gustave Flaubert, and his stories are characterized by economy of style and efficient, seemingly effortless dénouements. Born in 1850 at the late–sixteenth century Château de Miromesnil, de Maupassant was the first son of Laure Le Poittevin and Gustave de Maupassant, who both came from prosperous bourgeois families. Until the age of thirteen, de Maupassant lived with his mother at Étretat in Normandy. The Franco-Prussian War broke out soon after his graduation from college in 1870, and he enlisted as a volunteer. In his later years he developed a constant desire for solitude, an obsession for self-preservation, and a fear of death and paranoia of persecution. In 1892, de Maupassant attempted suicide. He was committed to the private asylum of Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris, where he died in 1893.
Read more from Guy De Maupassant
A Very French Christmas: The Greatest French Holiday Stories of All Time Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Famous Modern Ghost Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Harvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBig Book of Christmas Tales: 250+ Short Stories, Fairytales and Holiday Myths & Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Necklace and Other Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Guy de Maupassant MEGAPACK ®: 144 Novels and Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boule De Suif: Bilingual Edition (English – French) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Ball of Fat
Related ebooks
The Croquet Player Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAddicted To Murder (Memoirs of a Serial Killer) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThey Return At Evening Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Life Among Spirits Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMen Explain Things to Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sensual Chemist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHalf-Caste: Decidedly Brown in a Black or White World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Beasts of Valhalla Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Theron:The Amusing Musings of a Ghost Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGood Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Get-Over-Yourself Self-Help Book and Other Essays: The Collected Works of a Misunderstood Curmudgeon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Indiscretion of the Duchess : Being a Story Concerning Two Ladies, a Nobleman, and a Necklace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe View From Penthouse B Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDon't Read This Book If You're Right Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRantings of an Insomniac : or I Wish Jesus Hadn't Said That: Or I Wish Jesus Hadn't Said That Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVeracity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5[White Devil] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Mind That Found Itself Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Abundant Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Mind That Found Itself: An Autobiography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Autobiography of a Quack and the Case of George Dedlow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPop Culture Sucks, Manifesto Of A Vampire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRude Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComing Up Trumps: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Am I Crazy?: An Unapologetic Patriot Takes on the Insanity of Today’s Woke World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Peeing On Hot Coals: Drowning the Devil Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Haunted Flagstaff Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCarrie Kills A Man: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBad Buddhist: Speed Bumps and Detours on the Path to Enlightenment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Dark Humor For You
Swamp Story: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Family Fang: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sisters Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Between the Bridge and the River: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trout Fishing in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five People You Meet in Hell: An Unauthorized Parody Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Candy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Laws of the Skies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dog's Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eunuchs and Nymphomaniacs Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Apathy and Other Small Victories: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Post Office: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5P.S. Your Cat Is Dead: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dice Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death with Interruptions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sorrow and Bliss: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barbara Isn’t Dying: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Company: A Novel of the CIA Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Snobs: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bone in the Throat Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Into the Woods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Captain is Out to Lunch Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tobacco Road: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/52030: The Real Story of What Happens to America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related categories
Reviews for Ball of Fat
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Ball of Fat - Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant
Ball of Fat
EAN 8596547396932
DigiCat, 2022
Contact: DigiCat@okpublishing.info
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Text
Boule De Suif
For several days in succession fragments of a defeated army had passed through the town. They were mere disorganized bands, not disciplined forces. The men wore long, dirty beards and tattered uniforms; they advanced in listless fashion, without a flag, without a leader. All seemed exhausted, worn out, incapable of thought or resolve, marching onward merely by force of habit, and dropping to the ground with fatigue the moment they halted. One saw, in particular, many enlisted men, peaceful citizens, men who lived quietly on their income, bending beneath the weight of their rifles; and little active volunteers, easily frightened but full of enthusiasm, as eager to attack as they were ready to take to flight; and amid these, a sprinkling of red-breeched soldiers, the pitiful remnant of a division cut down in a great battle; somber artillerymen, side by side with nondescript foot-soldiers; and, here and there, the gleaming helmet of a heavy-footed dragoon who had difficulty in keeping up with the quicker pace of the soldiers of the line. Legions of irregulars with high-sounding names Avengers of Defeat,
Citizens of the Tomb,
Brethren in Death
— passed in their turn, looking like banditti. Their leaders, former drapers or grain merchants, or tallow or soap chandlers — warriors by force of circumstances, officers by reason of their mustachios or their money — covered with weapons, flannel and gold lace, spoke in an impressive manner, discussed plans of campaign, and behaved as though they alone bore the fortunes of dying France on their braggart shoulders; though, in truth, they frequently were afraid of their own men — scoundrels often brave beyond measure, but pillagers and debauchees.
Rumor had it that the Prussians were about to enter Rouen.
The members of the National Guard, who for the past two months had been reconnoitering with the utmost caution in the neighboring woods, occasionally shooting their own sentinels, and making ready for fight whenever a rabbit rustled in the undergrowth, had now returned to their homes. Their arms, their uniforms, all the death-dealing paraphernalia with which they had terrified all the milestones along the highroad for eight miles round, had suddenly and marvellously disappeared.
The last of the French soldiers had just crossed the Seine on their way to Pont-Audemer, through Saint-Sever and Bourg-Achard, and in their rear the vanquished general, powerless to do aught with the forlorn remnants of his army, himself dismayed at the final overthrow of a nation accustomed to victory and disastrously beaten despite its legendary bravery, walked between two orderlies.
Then a profound calm, a shuddering, silent dread, settled on the city. Many a round-paunched citizen, emasculated by years devoted to business, anxiously awaited the conquerors, trembling lest his roasting-jacks or kitchen knives should be looked upon as weapons.
Life seemed to have stopped short; the shops were shut, the streets deserted. Now and then an inhabitant, awed by the silence, glided swiftly by in the shadow of the walls. The anguish of suspense made men even desire the arrival of the enemy.
In the afternoon of the day following the departure of the French troops, a number of uhlans, coming no one knew whence, passed rapidly through the town. A little later on, a black mass descended St. Catherine’s Hill, while two other invading bodies appeared respectively on the Darnetal and the Boisguillaume roads. The advance guards of the three corps arrived at precisely the same moment at the Square of the Hotel de Ville, and the German army poured through all the adjacent streets, its battalions making the pavement ring with their firm, measured tread.
Orders shouted in an unknown, guttural tongue rose to the windows of the seemingly dead, deserted houses; while behind the fast-closed shutters eager eyes peered forth at the victors-masters now of the city, its fortunes, and its lives, by right of war.
The inhabitants, in their darkened rooms, were possessed by that terror which follows in the wake of cataclysms, of deadly upheavals of the earth, against which all human skill and strength are vain. For