The Horla and Others: The Best Weird Fiction and Ghost Stories of Guy de Maupassant

 

Guy de Maupassant is a 19th century French writer, and master of the short story. He did not write only macabre or ghost stories but he wrote enough to be called the Gallic Poe. In turn he influenced the writing of H.P. Lovecraft, perhaps we could call Lovecraft the American de Maupassant, but that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. By the way, it’s Guy (ghee, rhymes with “he”) de Maupassant (mahñ-pah-sawñ). The “N” is almost, but not entirely silent, or just…unpronounceable for anglophones.

• Author: Guy De Maupassant
• Illustrator: Michael Grant Kellermeyer
• Horror, Short Stories, French Literature
• First Published: 1886
• My edition: Oldstyle Tales, 2016

 

The Gallic Poe is fitting, especially for this collection. It is very reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe. The terror is seldom a snarling blood-thirsty beast, or even ethereal specter, but rather the nameless fear, the shadowy phantasm, that troubles the otherwise rational mind…especially at night. The title story, “The Horla” is particularly styled along these lines. The horla or “outsider” takes up residence in the apartments of a comfortable, rational young Frenchman. It’s something like a vampire, only invisible. It drains the life force of its victim and bends their will to its own.

 

I loved this exchange between the young Frenchman as he asks a monk if he believes in the supernatural. The monk replied…

Do we see the hundred thousandth part of what exists? Look here; there is the wind, which is the strangest force in nature, which knocks down men, and blows down buildings, uproots trees, raises the sea into mountains of water, destroys cliffs and casts great ships onto the breakers; the wind which kills, which whistles, which sighs, which roars, — have you ever seen it, and can you see it? It exists for all that, however.

And the young Frenchman’s response.

The man was a philosopher, or perhaps a fool; I could not say which exactly, so I held my tongue.

Most of de Maupassant’s main characters are unnamed, hence “the young Frenchman”. But most of the stories are told by first-person narrators. Are they reliable or not? That is the question de Maupassant does not answer.

 

An excerpt from “Magnetism” another unnamed character…

The populace, and imbecile flock of sheep, now steadily patient, and now in ferocious revolt. Say to it: “Amuse yourself” and it amuses itself,. Say to it: “Go and fight with your neighbor,” and it goes and fights. Say to it: “ Vote for the Emperor,” and it votes for the Emperor, and then say to it: “Vote for the Republic,” and it votes for the Republic.

 

Those who direct it are also stupid.

The Horla, both the short story and the others in this collection, have no snarling beasts, nor satisfying closure. Someone may die, or go mad, or simply disappear, but the reader is left wondering…”What was that?” (Nod to Meriadoc Brandybuck intentional.)

 

I do not care for de Maupassant’s cynicisms. But, if his purpose in writing was to express them, he was successful.

 

And he was wildly successful in writing creepy, unnerving tales fit for October. I thought "The Horla" was the best.

 

Like Poe, de Maupassant was a troubled soul, only worse. The following is his own epitaph:

I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing.

Have you read de Mauppassant? Any recommendations for non-spooky stories by GdM?

 

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