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Summary: Thrifty is Nifty!!!
Review: Dover Thrift books are unreal! Most are only a dollar. Youcan't beat that - even at used bookstores. I looked into this titleafter delving into Harold Bloom's "How to Read and Why". Whilesome of Bloom's opinions are rather biased (he doesn't like Poe -sigh), his recommendation of this and other short stories byMaupassant (The Horla, Mme. Tellier's Establishment - included inthis Dover edition) have merit."The Necklace" is not only apoignant reminder of how too great an expectation leads todisaster. It cuts through the social trances of old-age high societyand sheds a realistic light on the pretenses people "put on" (nopun intended) and shed with truth. Maupassant deftly shiftedjuxtaposed characters from one environment to the next to show theeffects change has on creatures of habit and the necessity/importanceof the habits themselves. The best thing about Dover Thrift is youdon't feel guilty about jotting notes and highlighting the pages. Ihack them up and drag them around wherever I go, thereby keeping myleather bound or hardcovers protected...
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Summary: This Guy isn't angry!
Review: i hated this story. I am in college and we are reading this and it says for 9-12 year olds and i am 35.
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Summary: This book is a dreat value
Review: I love the Dover Thrift Edition series. I originally bought Kafka's "The Metamorphasis and other Stories" and was delighted by the selction of a few fine representative works by that author. Again, for a shockingly low price, I decided to revisit a story I read many years ago and bought this volume. "The Necklace" is a great tale of irony in which the old adage "no good deed goes unpunished" is illustrated. It is a tale of honorably living up to one's resposibilities and it ends with quite a twist. This was a great read when I was very young and it still is well into my middle age. I recommend the "Thrift Editions," including this one, to quicky and inexpensively build a library of representative works of great writers.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a dreat value
Review: I love the Dover Thrift Edition series. I originally bought Kafka's "The Metamorphasis and other Stories" and was delighted by the selction of a few fine representative works by that author. Again, for a shockingly low price, I decided to revisit a story I read many years ago and bought this volume. "The Necklace" is a great tale of irony in which the old adage "no good deed goes unpunished" is illustrated. It is a tale of honorably living up to one's resposibilities and it ends with quite a twist. This was a great read when I was very young and it still is well into my middle age. I recommend the "Thrift Editions," including this one, to quicky and inexpensively build a library of representative works of great writers.
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Summary: Paste makes waste
Review: I read this when I was 12. I liked it. I think they should have been honest about what happened, rather than trying to cover it up. That would have saved them from a lot of grief.(I wouldn't advertise to the world that I didn't "get it" if I were 35.)
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Summary: Flaubert's disciple influenced Chekhov's flair for irony.
Review: This ...Dover collection of short stories, written by arguably the best writer ever in the genre, traces the invention of modern short fiction. After Maupassant’s parents divorced, his mother became friends with Gustave Flaubert of the “Madame Bovary” fame. Flaubert committed himself to tutoring the young aristocrat – hence the “de” in his surname – and said of his protégé, “I love him like a son.” What an apprenticeship? An artist owes much to his or her environment hence the background just volunteered reveals decisive influences that informed Guy’s craft. In turn, Maupassant’s work would influence those of Chekhov, Joyce, James, Babel and Hemingway! Chekhov’s oeuvre then influenced Katherine Mansfield and so on - an impressive literary family tree indeed! Maupassant, who studied law, was a master of irony and the title story exemplifies that. “The Necklace” and “A Piece of String” (otherwise translated from French as “The String”) are much anthologized. Of the more than 360 short stories he wrote, the nine stories in this collection are well plotted and, like most of his followers, the author avoids imposing any moral judgments on his characters – not even on the prostitute in his sensational first story, “Ball-of-Fat” (“Boule de Suif”). ...- enjoy the dreams!
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