Best Short Stories is a dual-language book authored by Guy de Maupassant. Many of his stories were set in his homeland, Normandy, and, published between 1880 and 1887. Maupassant wrote with powerful verve and imagination. In reading the stories it is not unusual that he is known as ‘the father of the modern short story.’

Boule de Suif (“Ball of Fat”) is the nickname given to a well-known prostitute who finds herself traveling in a coach with conventionally respectable people through Prussian-occupied France during wartime.

1. Anton Chekhov. Chekhov wrote from every point of view: men, women, old, young, rich, poor.

Five Reasons Short Stories Are Best for Language Learning

• Short stories offer more cultural exposure than novels.
• Short stories are more personal than news articles.
• Short stories are great for culture exposure.
• Short stories are perfect for busy lives.
• Short stories require less investment.

The main characters in the story include ten travelers headed to Le Havre: three couples of the merchant- and upper-class, two nuns, a bachelor, and Boule de Suif (an obese prostitute whose name translates to ‘ball of fat,’ or ‘suet dumpling’).

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete, by Guy de Maupassant This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.

In the month of April, 1880, an article appeared in the “Le Gaulois” announcing the publication of the Soirees de Medan. It was signed by a name as yet unknown: Guy de Maupassant.

He undertook to write the article for the Gaulois and, in cooperation with his friends, he worded it in the terms with which we are familiar, amplifying and embellishing it, yielding to an inborn taste for mystification which his youth rendered excusable. The essential point, he said, is to “unmoor” criticism. It was unmoored.