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[book post] Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant trans. Douglas Parmée
I saw this summary of Bel-Ami somewhere...
The story chronicles journalist Georges Duroy's corrupt rise to power from a poor former cavalry NCO in France's African colonies, to one of the most successful men in Paris, most of which he achieves by manipulating a series of powerful, intelligent, and wealthy women.
...and was like "oh my God this is SO my shit I must read it IMMEDIATELY." (And then was pleased to discover I apparently already downloaded it a few months ago, so, uh, apparently past-me had the same thought and just got distracted haha.) Anyone who knows my taste knows that "messy drama," "scoundrels being scoundrels," "terrible dinner parties," "dudes seducing and/or being seduced by cougars," and so on, are all on the shortlist of Things That Are Instantly Interesting To Me, and BOY HOWDY does Bel-Ami deliver on all those fronts.
What I wasn't expecting was—
Okay, brief flashback. I remember watching Inglorious Basterds in theaters, right? And as the movie was getting close to the end, I found myself thinking, "God, they've really got a lock on this; how is Hitler going to escape?" Because, y'know, I knew history; I knew Hitler did not in fact actually die here, so the guy would have to slip away and thus leave our heroes thwarted at some point. And I do remember laughing at the point when I realized that Tarantino's professional opinion was in fact "fuck that, it's my movie and I can kill Hitler if I want to," and then they kill Hitler, and it's like, damn hell yeah!
Well, Bel-Ami gave me that feeling but in reverse—instead of "they can't get away with this," you're thinking, "by God, Duroy can't keep getting away with this, can he?" Because halfway through the novel, we've seen him go from a minimum-wage desk jockey to a decent journalist (via the power of Connections and Passing Off Other People's Work As His Own), then a journalist into head of a major section of the newspaper (via the power of Marrying Your Boss's Widow), then seen him make yet more money by carrying out an affair with his new boss's wife (!!!), while doing all kinds of petty mean shit, and then he's trying out his MOST AUDACIOUS ACT YET and you're like, surely he gets his comeuppance at some point, right...? And the novel's answer is: he CAN keep getting away with it actually :) horrible people who manipulate everyone around them do in fact prevail :) some bastards have all the luck :) and all the money and women too!!! and it's like. Damn, Mr. Maupassant, you are one blackpilled motherfucker but damn can you write a story!
Anyway, this was a rollicking good ride; fun as all hell; if it seems like the kind of thing you might like, you will in fact like it, give it a shot. I kept shouting "oh NO" while reading, was occasionally hollering at Duroy to KEEP GOING or NO STOP; it was a rush.
I only knew of Maupassant via his short stories (aside: is it more correct to refer to him as "Maupassant" or "de Maupassant"? no idea how the French name thing works here)—I read "The Necklace" out of one of my mom's textbooks when I was a kid, alongside a couple others I don't remember as well—but I'm surprised I'd never heard of him for his longer stuff! It moved along at such a gallop and was so entertaining throughout. I dunno if you'd want to teach it in high school, exactly (see: aforementioned blackpilledness; I'm not sure if Maupassant is trying to say anything Super Deep here or if he's simply just giving an Incisive, Biting Look at society, which doesn't make the best class material I suppose), but I enjoyed the ride so much. Like a classier and cleverer high-concept The OC, or something. It's possible that tinge of blackpilledness might've been wearying at a longer length, but as-is, I was captivated throughout.
Other scattered stuff I remember enjoying:
* Maupassant's humor is witty, dry, and cynical right from the get go. In our opening chapter, Duroy gets a newspaper job by running into an old friend from the army who's managed to get a decent middle-manager position at a decent newspaper, and this is the bulk of their "interview":
And then Duroy gets the job :) and neither he nor his boss ever show any sign of wanting to Know More About Things :) unless it Advances Their Position At The Paper :) (one wonders how much familiarity Maupassant had with the newspaper world himself & if he was being rather pointed haha)
* the bit where he's like "ugh my bachelor pad looks like shit... I know; I'll go buy some Japanese paper & other weeb shit & decorate with that" COULD ALSO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN THE 21ST CENTURY lol
* The bit where Duroy manages to get himself in a duel due to a Poasting Throw-Down With The Editor At Some Other Newspaper is (1) hilarious, because truly We Have Always Been Poasting; it reads SO much like the Twitter of its time, and (2) hilarious because of all the build-up to the duel and the duel itself—I learned all kinds of WEIRD little details about the (deranged!) rituals & formalities around duels, and was on the edge of my seat for the result...!
* I liked how agenic most of the female characters were. Like, yes, Madame Walter is pretty ridiculous... but we only see her after we've seen plenty of Madame de Marelle, who is just here to have a good time (and, uh, given what we see of the moral standing of most the people around her... why the fuck not lol), and after we've seen plenty of Madame Forestier, who absolutely is playing the game & knows she's doing it. (It's so satisfying to hear, in the epilogue, that she's got another up-and-coming journalist pulled into her thrall... Who knows, maybe she'll be able to bite back at Duroy with her newest boytoy in good time.)
The story chronicles journalist Georges Duroy's corrupt rise to power from a poor former cavalry NCO in France's African colonies, to one of the most successful men in Paris, most of which he achieves by manipulating a series of powerful, intelligent, and wealthy women.
...and was like "oh my God this is SO my shit I must read it IMMEDIATELY." (And then was pleased to discover I apparently already downloaded it a few months ago, so, uh, apparently past-me had the same thought and just got distracted haha.) Anyone who knows my taste knows that "messy drama," "scoundrels being scoundrels," "terrible dinner parties," "dudes seducing and/or being seduced by cougars," and so on, are all on the shortlist of Things That Are Instantly Interesting To Me, and BOY HOWDY does Bel-Ami deliver on all those fronts.
What I wasn't expecting was—
Okay, brief flashback. I remember watching Inglorious Basterds in theaters, right? And as the movie was getting close to the end, I found myself thinking, "God, they've really got a lock on this; how is Hitler going to escape?" Because, y'know, I knew history; I knew Hitler did not in fact actually die here, so the guy would have to slip away and thus leave our heroes thwarted at some point. And I do remember laughing at the point when I realized that Tarantino's professional opinion was in fact "fuck that, it's my movie and I can kill Hitler if I want to," and then they kill Hitler, and it's like, damn hell yeah!
Well, Bel-Ami gave me that feeling but in reverse—instead of "they can't get away with this," you're thinking, "by God, Duroy can't keep getting away with this, can he?" Because halfway through the novel, we've seen him go from a minimum-wage desk jockey to a decent journalist (via the power of Connections and Passing Off Other People's Work As His Own), then a journalist into head of a major section of the newspaper (via the power of Marrying Your Boss's Widow), then seen him make yet more money by carrying out an affair with his new boss's wife (!!!), while doing all kinds of petty mean shit, and then he's trying out his MOST AUDACIOUS ACT YET and you're like, surely he gets his comeuppance at some point, right...? And the novel's answer is: he CAN keep getting away with it actually :) horrible people who manipulate everyone around them do in fact prevail :) some bastards have all the luck :) and all the money and women too!!! and it's like. Damn, Mr. Maupassant, you are one blackpilled motherfucker but damn can you write a story!
Anyway, this was a rollicking good ride; fun as all hell; if it seems like the kind of thing you might like, you will in fact like it, give it a shot. I kept shouting "oh NO" while reading, was occasionally hollering at Duroy to KEEP GOING or NO STOP; it was a rush.
I only knew of Maupassant via his short stories (aside: is it more correct to refer to him as "Maupassant" or "de Maupassant"? no idea how the French name thing works here)—I read "The Necklace" out of one of my mom's textbooks when I was a kid, alongside a couple others I don't remember as well—but I'm surprised I'd never heard of him for his longer stuff! It moved along at such a gallop and was so entertaining throughout. I dunno if you'd want to teach it in high school, exactly (see: aforementioned blackpilledness; I'm not sure if Maupassant is trying to say anything Super Deep here or if he's simply just giving an Incisive, Biting Look at society, which doesn't make the best class material I suppose), but I enjoyed the ride so much. Like a classier and cleverer high-concept The OC, or something. It's possible that tinge of blackpilledness might've been wearying at a longer length, but as-is, I was captivated throughout.
Other scattered stuff I remember enjoying:
* Maupassant's humor is witty, dry, and cynical right from the get go. In our opening chapter, Duroy gets a newspaper job by running into an old friend from the army who's managed to get a decent middle-manager position at a decent newspaper, and this is the bulk of their "interview":
"Did you get your baccalauréat at school?"
"No, I failed it twice."
"Not to worry, as long as you stayed on at school long enough to sit for it. If someone mentioned the name of Cicero or Tiberius, would you know what they're talking about, roughly?"
"Roughly, yes."
"Good, that's all anybody knows, except for a couple of dozen silly idiots who are quite incapable of doing anything about it. It's not difficult to appear bright, don't worry. The main thing is never to show obvious ignorance of anything. You prevaricate, avoid the difficulty, steer clear of the problem and then catch other people out by using a dictionary. All men are stupid oafs and ignorant nincompoops."
And then Duroy gets the job :) and neither he nor his boss ever show any sign of wanting to Know More About Things :) unless it Advances Their Position At The Paper :) (one wonders how much familiarity Maupassant had with the newspaper world himself & if he was being rather pointed haha)
* the bit where he's like "ugh my bachelor pad looks like shit... I know; I'll go buy some Japanese paper & other weeb shit & decorate with that" COULD ALSO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN THE 21ST CENTURY lol
* The bit where Duroy manages to get himself in a duel due to a Poasting Throw-Down With The Editor At Some Other Newspaper is (1) hilarious, because truly We Have Always Been Poasting; it reads SO much like the Twitter of its time, and (2) hilarious because of all the build-up to the duel and the duel itself—I learned all kinds of WEIRD little details about the (deranged!) rituals & formalities around duels, and was on the edge of my seat for the result...!
* I liked how agenic most of the female characters were. Like, yes, Madame Walter is pretty ridiculous... but we only see her after we've seen plenty of Madame de Marelle, who is just here to have a good time (and, uh, given what we see of the moral standing of most the people around her... why the fuck not lol), and after we've seen plenty of Madame Forestier, who absolutely is playing the game & knows she's doing it. (It's so satisfying to hear, in the epilogue, that she's got another up-and-coming journalist pulled into her thrall... Who knows, maybe she'll be able to bite back at Duroy with her newest boytoy in good time.)