Author: Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant's ancestors were noble, and his grandfather, was Gustave Flaubert's godfather. His parents separated when he was 11 years old. Maupassant grew up in his native Normandy. In 1869 Maupassant started to study law in Paris, but soon, at age 20, he volunteered to serve in the army during Franco-Prussian War. After his return to Paris, Maupassant joined the literary circle of Gustave Flaubert. Between the years 1872 and 1880 Maupassant was a civil servant, first at the ministry of maritime affairs, then at the ministry of education. During the 1880s Maupassant created some 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and one volume of verse. Maupassant had suffered from his 20s from syphilis. The disease later caused increasing mental disorder - also seen in his nightmarish stories, which have much in common with Edgar Allan Poe's supernatural visions. On January 2, in 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat and was committed to the private asylum where he died next year.
