"Do we see even the hundred-thousandth part of existence?" That is the question that our unnamed narrator asks in Guy de Maupassant's short story, "The Horla", which he wrote in 1887. The story is a mixture of madness, horror and ultimately suicide. I read it this weekend--it's doing triple duty as a short story selection from L.K.'s list, the next story up for discussion at A Curious Singularity and as my weekly short story read for Carl's RIP Challenge. How's that for killing several birds with one stone? This is my first exposure to Guy de Maupassant, and I am looking forward to discussing it, as it seems that there is so much more to the story than what is on the surface.
Guy de Maupassant wrote over 300 short stories. About 39 of them are horror stories and I read that they have much in common with Edgar Allen Poe's work--both authors deal in the themes of madness and the supernatural. Maupassant was a protege of Gustave Flaubert, and was part of a literary circle that included Emile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, and Henry James. His writing career, however, was short lived as he eventually was driven insane from the effects of syphilis that he had contracted as a young man. He attempted suicide, but would die a couple of years later just a few months short of his 43rd birthday.
Possible spoilers ahead in case you plan on reading the story, which I highly recommend.
The story is written as a series of journal entries between May and September. When the story begins the narrator is happy. He is living in the home of his childhood close to Rouen. He can see the blue roofs and the Gothic belfries of the city from his garden. The weather is glorious, and he watches the ships pass close by on the Seine. He is deeply moved by the sight of a Brazilian vessel and he raises his hand to it in a salute. Several days pass and he remarks in his journal that he has had a slight fever and that he feels rather sad. This goes on for weeks. He is sick and distressed and has nightmares. He is plagued with an "incessant feeling of ominous danger and imminent misfortune". Nothing seems to help, and in the end he decides to go away for a while.
He goes to Mont Saint-Michel where he has a splendid time. It is here that he has a conversation with a monk about the existence of creatures that he's never seen. Is it possible, how is it possible--that there exist other beings on earth that no one knows about? But like the wind we do not see, so are there things out there as well we do not see. Perhaps the man is a fool or a sage, but in the end the narrator feels cured. This conversation, however, will come back to haunt him. Unfortunately upon returning home, those feelings of illness and anguish come back. He comes to the conclusion that there is something in his house with him. It drinks the water and milk he leaves by his bedside at night. He feels it hovering over and near him. When he leaves again these feelings disappear.
Each time he returns, it is harder for him to leave until he feels almost imprisoned in his home. The narrator fits the various pieces of the puzzle together through his own observations, his experiences with hypnosis and his readings in scientific journals to understand the phenomena that is occurring. I think I'm going to leave off describing the story here. There's not really a shocking final twist at the end--the outcome is masterfully revealed throughout the careful telling of the story, however. Maupassant deftly shows how the Horla, beckoned unknowingly by the narrator from the Brazilian ship, whittles away at the man's sanity.
Although the story is available online, I checked out The Necklace and Other Tales from the library, as I prefer reading from a book given the choice. I had planned on just reading this one story, but I think I may have to read the other stories in the collection as well.
Cross posted at A Curious Singularity.