After reading Guy De Maupassant's The Horla (The Entity) a couple of months back, I decided I liked his work so much I needed to read more. I have his collection The Nacklace and Other Tales checked out from the library, and have finally started reading some of the stories. I don't know much about him, but I do know he wrote hundreds of short stories, and the few I've read are wonderfully executed. His prose is clean and the plots are tight. And I know they have more to say about society than what you read on the surface.
(Possible plot spoilers).
"The Necklace" reminded me of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert--a woman who would like to live the life of elegance, but she been born into a family of artisans. Mathilde Loisel is pretty and charming and has an inner finesse not usually found amongst those women of her class. Alas, she is doomed to marry a clerk. While her husband is content with the life that he is destined to lead, Mathilde cannot help but fantasize about a life filled with opulence, extravagant dinners, fine clothes and jewels. Those are the only things that matter to her.
When her husband brings home an invitation to a ball she is furious. How can she attend a ball given by wealthy government official when she has nothing appropriate to wear. When her husband asks how much a gown would cost, the figure she gives him is just the sum he has saved to buy a new gun he will buy for a shooting party with his friends the following summer. Instead he gives her the money for a ball gown. She is not satisfied with just a gown, however. It calls for some sort of ornamentation, but there are no more funds to be had, so she borrows a diamond necklace from a good friend.
The night of the ball comes. Life is perfect. She dances, she flirts, she is living the life she has dreamed of and is a success at it. A fairy princess for a night. But her fantasy is spoiled when she discovers the necklace has fallen from her neck. No amount of searching will help find it. Now to set things right a replacement must be bought, but at a cost which will throw the Loisel's into poverty. When Mathilde presents the replacement to her friend, the box is not even opened (to Mathilde's satisfaction as she is afraid her friend will know it is not the same necklace).
Although they were not rich, they did have a comfortable life. Now there is no more home, no more maid, and many, many IOUs. It will take them ten long years and the loss of Mathilde's youth and beauty to repay the loans adding up to 36,000 francs. Although Mathilde appears shallow and self absorbed, she does take responsbility for her actions. The twist? It's unfortunate she didn't come clean in the beginning to her friend. Years later she sees her and stops to talk, since her debts are repayed she believes it is okay to finally admit to her folly. When her friend looks at her she is shocked a woman of a lower class would deign to stop her approach her. When she discovers it is Madame Loisel she cannot believe it.
"Oh, my poor Mathilde! My necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!..."
Shocking! Isn't that ending genius! A steep price to pay for what was not even worth it in the beginning.