Alien Hearts was the last book that Guy de Maupassant finished before his death at the early age of forty-three. It is the most original and psychologically penetrating of his several novels, and the one in which he attains a truly tragic perception of the wounded human heart. André Mariolle is a rich, handsome, gifted young man who cannot settle on what to do with himself. Madame de Burne, a glacially dazzling beauty, wants Mariolle to attend her exclusive salon for artists, composers, writers, and other intellectuals. At first Mariolle keeps his distance, but then he hits on the solution to all his problems: caring for nothing in particular, he will devote himself to being in love; Madame de Burne will be his everything. Soon lover and beloved are equally lost within a hall of mirrors of their common devising.
Richard Howard’s new English translation of this complex and brooding novel—the first in more than a hundred years—reveals the final, unexpected flowering of a great French realist’s art.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893), journalist, novelist, poet, memoirist, playwright, and short-story writer, was one of the most notable men of letters of nineteenth-century France. He was born in Normandy to a middle-class family that had adopted the noble “de” prefix only a generation earlier. An indifferent student, Maupassant enlisted in the army during the Franco-Prussian War—staying only long enough to acquire an intense dislike for all things military—and then went on to a career as a civil servant. His entrée to the literary world was eased by Gustave Flaubert, who had been a childhood playmate of his mother’s and who took the young man under his wing, introducing him into salon society. The bulk of Maupassant’s published works, including nearly three hundred short stories and six novels, were written between 1880 and 1890, a period in which he also contributed to several Parisian daily newspapers. Among his best-known works are the novels Bel-Ami and Pierre and Jean and the fantastic tale “La Horla”; above all, he is celebrated for his stories, which transformed and defined the genre for years. In 1892, after attempting suicide to escape the hallucinations and headaches brought on by syphilis, Maupassant was committed to an asylum. He died eighteen months later.
Richard Howard was born in Cleveland in 1929. He is the author of fourteen volumes of poetry and has published more than one hundred fifty translations from the French, including works by Gide, Stendhal, de Beauvoir, Baudelaire, and de Gaulle. Howard received a National Book Award for his translation of Fleurs du mal and a Pulitzer Prize for Untitled Subjects, a collection of poetry.
Eminent translator Howard gives a leavened, modern feel to Maupassant's weary tale of a young aristocratic loser infatuated with an on-the-rise Parisian salon hostess. André Mariolle, a rich, unmarried 37-year-old nobody, is introduced into the artistic salon of the wealthy young widow Madame Michèle de Burne and falls in love with the pretty hostess, a fiercely independent, utterly self-absorbed but intelligent coquette who is bent on attracting a cadre of slavish, brilliant admirers. A thoroughly modern woman, Madame de Burne encourages André's advances only insofar as they proceed discreetly; however, André is head over heels. She gives herself to him but remains emotionally aloof, leading to André's self-exile from Paris and his hiring of a comely girl as his domestic servant-cum-mistress in the wrong-headed hope of curing himself. Maupassant draws out Andre's tale of woe, a vehement meditation on feminine egotism, in dire speculations. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Shipping:
US$ 3.50
Within U.S.A.
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.5. Seller Inventory # G1590172604I4N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.5. Seller Inventory # G1590172604I3N10
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: HPB-Red, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
paperback. Condition: Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used textbooks may not include companion materials such as access codes, etc. May have some wear or writing/highlighting. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_350178398
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Magers and Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.
paperback. Condition: Very Good. Original. May have light to moderate shelf wear and/or a remainder mark. Complete. Clean pages. Seller Inventory # 1132715
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Books Unplugged, Amherst, NY, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Buy with confidence! Book is in good condition with minor wear to the pages, binding, and minor marks within 0.44. Seller Inventory # bk1590172604xvz189zvxgdd
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: GreatBookPrices, Columbia, MD, U.S.A.
Condition: good. May show signs of wear, highlighting, writing, and previous use. This item may be a former library book with typical markings. No guarantee on products that contain supplements Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Twenty-five year bookseller with shipments to over fifty million happy customers. Seller Inventory # 5551720-5
Quantity: 4 available
Seller: Book Deals, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.
Condition: Fair. Acceptable/Fair condition. Book is worn, but the pages are complete, and the text is legible. Has wear to binding and pages, may be ex-library. 0.44. Seller Inventory # 353-1590172604-acp
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Textbooks_Source, Columbia, MO, U.S.A.
paperback. Condition: Good. Original. Ships in a BOX from Central Missouri! May not include working access code. Will not include dust jacket. Has used sticker(s) and some writing or highlighting. UPS shipping for most packages, (Priority Mail for AK/HI/APO/PO Boxes). Seller Inventory # 001055364U
Quantity: 4 available
Seller: BookHolders, Towson, MD, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. [ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ][ Ships Daily ] [ Underlining/Highlighting: NONE ] [ Writing: NONE ] [ Edition: reprint ] Publisher: NYRB Classics Pub Date: 12/1/2009 Binding: Paperback Pages: 177 reprint edition. Seller Inventory # 6854533
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Wizard Books, Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard1590172604
Quantity: 1 available