Notre Coeur by Guy de Maupassant (1890)

The major stumbling block with Maupassant is attitudinal. Instead of investigating his favourite subject as women, the human beings we all know, he investigates them as exemplars of a pedestalised ultra-symbol, Woman. Fateful coquettes is what most of them are. And it is no different in this, his last novel. Michele de Burne and Andre Mariolle have a meeting of hearts but with very different modes and expectations. We follow their changeable path through demi-monde Parisian society with Michele keeping her cool and Andre wanly obsessive. There is a beautiful sequence in a surreptitiously planned meeting at Mont Saint-Michel, where the whole landscape sings and the Mont is fabulously impressive as a place of exploration. Then things begin to complicate: Andre's obsession warms as Michele's cool is maintained. My reaction ran counter to Maupassant's intention I think - I had a lot more time for the 'cold' woman than her 'adoring' man. Maupassant's unknowing heartlessness is exemplified in his treatment of Elisabeth, a woman to whom Andre turns when he becomes dissatisfied. She is brushed aside miserably. My copy also includes six short stories, most of which are relatively standard fare, though vivid. The exception is Revenge, a masterly revelation of heartbreak, and the awful consequences when the mind can no longer cope and the world goes black.