One of the common themes in his stories is a sense of lives ruined by steps not taken, whether from reticence, fear, vanity, love or any of a hundred reasons. "Queen Hortense" is about a older woman who never married, her two sisters did. She is queen over the court yard at her modest house. Her subjects are the cats, chickens, and stray dogs she feeds and holds court over.
She never had a lover of any kind or even it seems many friends. That is the way she wanted things. Her sisters do not seek a lot of contact with her and Hortense has let her appearance and her health go for way to long. One day the sisters are notified that Hortense is on her deathbed. They along with their children and husbands go to see her. As they enter her room she is giving advise to children who are not there, she is scolding a nonexistent husband and swearing her love to a man that never existed. Her sister conclude she is fantasizing about the life she never had and always told everyone she totally did not want. The sisters go in her room and try to talk to her while her brother in laws wait in the outer room. As the attending doctor comes out to tell the men she has passed away, one of them says to the other "that did not take as long as we feared it might".
Not a story for the best short stories of the world list (Guy de Mauapassant has at least ten stories that could go on such a list) but it brings a woman to life for us in just a few pages and has a solid meaning.
Hortense Bonaparte (1783 to 1837) was the stepdaughter of Napoleon and became Queen Consort of Holland so maybe de Maupassant is making a political point with the name of the central character in this story
Mel u
I wonder if I read this one. That's a problem with reading a bunch of them at once - the little ones blur a bit.
ReplyDeleteFrancis Steegmuller puts the number of Maupassant stories closer to 300. He published almost 250 just between 1882 and 1887!
Thanks for referring to my meme. Be sure to add your link, I don't see it on the latest edition, here: http://wordsandpeace.com/2012/02/01/i-love-france-14-review-6-2012-paris-my-sweet/
ReplyDeleteTo make life easier to fellow bloggers, I update the icon in the menu each time I post something new with that meme, so that you always get the latest edition. as there are not that many linkers so far, I also keep the links of previous posts
Amateur Reader-I will check how many stories are in the collection I downloaded-no name publisher like say Oxford Classics has published an edition of his short stories as far as I can see-I am sure you are right
ReplyDeleteEmma-I made the corrections and completed the linky on your Meme-thanks for hosting it-