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Pierrot (short story)


FieldValue
namePierrot
imageGuy de Maupassant photo portrait young.jpg
captionGuy de Maupassant photo portrait
authorGuy de Maupassant
countryFrance
languageFrench
seriesContes de la bécasse
published_in*Le Gaulois*
publication_typePeriodical
media_typePrint
pub_date1 October 1882
preceded_byLa Folle
followed_byMenuet

"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. The story was dedicated to Henry Roujon, novelist and public servant.

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

References

  1. Volume ''Maupassant, contes et nouvelles'', p. 1464, ''[[Bibliothèque de la Pléiade]]''
  2. Volume ''Maupassant, contes et nouvelles'', p. 1465, ''[[Bibliothèque de la Pléiade]]''
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