Pierrot (short story)

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"Pierrot"

Short story by Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant photo portrait

Country

France

Language

French

Publication

Published in

Le Gaulois

Publication type

Periodical

Media type

Publication date

1 October 1882

Chronology

Series

Contes de la bécasse

La Folle

Menuet

"Pierrot" is a short story by French writer Guy de Maupassant. It was originally published on 1 October 1882 in the French newspaper Le Gaulois. A year later, in 1883, it appeared in the short story collection Contes de la bécasse.^[1] The story was dedicated to Henry Roujon, novelist and public servant.^[2]

Plot

Ms. Lefevre, a rich, miserly widow has a dozen onions stolen from her garden. Following the advice of a neighbor, she decides to buy a small dog. The baker brings her a dog named Pierrot. He would always bark because he is hungry. He isn't even scaring the thief away.

She refuses to pay eight francs for the animal and decides to throw Pierrot into a Denehole, which is a well in which all dogs from the area end up. They slowly starve to death and eat those that have already died.

She throws Pierrot in the well, but when she hears the barking of the dog, it tears her heart. The following nights she sees Pierrot in her dreams, but she keeps refusing to pay the tax. To appease her guilty conscience, she goes every day beside the hole to throw Pierrot some bread. Then she hears a second dog in the well. She refuses to feed another dog because it was bigger and stronger. She leaves Pierrot to die.

Editions

Pierrot, Maupassant, Contes et nouvelles. Texte établi et annoté par Louis Forestier, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, éditions Gallimard, 1974

References

^ Volume Maupassant, contes et nouvelles, p. 1464, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade
^ Volume Maupassant, contes et nouvelles, p. 1465, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade

External links

An omnibus collection of Maupassant's short fiction at Standard Ebooks

v t e Guy de Maupassant
Bibliography
Novels	Une Vie Bel-Ami Sur l'eau (1886) Pierre et Jean Le Rosier de Madame Husson
Story collections	Les Soirées de Médan La Maison Tellier (1881) Mademoiselle Fifi (1882) Contes de la bécasse (1883) Clair de lune (1883) Miss Harriet (1884) Les Sœurs Rondoli (1884) Yvette (1884) Contes du jour et de la nuit (1885) Monsieur Parent (1885) Toine (1886) La Petite Roque (1886) Le Horla (1887) Le Rosier de madame Husson (1888) La Main gauche (1889) L'Inutile Beauté (1890) Le Père Milon (1900) Le Colporteur (1900) Misti (1912)
Short stories	"À vendre" "Le Baptême" "La Bête à Maît' Belhomme" "Boule de Suif" "La Confidence" "Deux Amis" "Un fou" "The Horla" "Imprudence" "L'Inconnue" "Mademoiselle Fifi" "La Maison Tellier" "Mother Savage" "The Necklace" "La Peur" "The Piece of String" "Pierrot" "Suicides" "Tribunaux Rustiques" "Useless Beauty" "A Vendetta"
Related	The Affairs of Maupassant (1935 film) Katha Sagar (1986 series)

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