A Life: The Humble Truth

The first of Maupassant’s six novels, A Life (Une Vie) (1883) is an unflinching presentation of a woman’s life of failure and disappointments as she lapses into a state of disillusion. With its intricate network of parallels and oppositions, the novel reflects the influence of Flaubert in its attention to form. It also expresses Maupassant’s characteristic naturalistic vision in which the satire of bourgeois manners, the representation of the aristocracy in pathological decline, the undermining of human individuality and ideals and the study of deterioration and disintegration all play a role. This new translation by Roger Pearson brilliantly captures the novel’s laconic, impersonal tone.