Maupassant, GUY DE, a clever French writer, was born 5th August 1850, at the castle of Miromesnil in Normandy, and, after carrying a musket through the Franco-German war, was initiated by Gustave Flaubert into the craft of letters. He attached himself to the younger branch of the naturalistic school, and wrote himself in by a story contributed to the Soirées de Médan (1880). He next produced a play, Histoire du Vieux Temps, and a striking volume of lyrics published under the title Des Vers (1880). But he won his real reputation as a novelist and storyteller, with La Maison Tellier (1881), Les Sœurs
Rondoli (1884), Contes du Jour (1885), Contes et Nouvelles (1885), Monsieur Parent (1885), Bel-Ami (1885), La petite Roque (1886), Pierre et Jean (1888), and Fort comme la Mort (1889). He became insane in 1892, and died in an asylum, 6th July 1893.