Yvette

Maupassant, Guy de, 1850-1893Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.2

Word count: 139K words
Chapters: 14

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Yvette by Guy de Maupassant. Author: Maupassant, Guy de, 1850-1893. Language: English. Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese. Release Date: Jan 1, 2003

Editor's review

Yvette is a novella by Maupassant, presented here as an English electronic edition through Project Gutenberg. As the earliest provider of free eBooks, Project Gutenberg offers a version that readers can access directly on various devices. Maupassant excelled at short stories and novellas, sketching social scenes and human fates within limited space in a calm, ironic style. This book serves as an accessible introduction to nineteenth-century French literature and Maupassant's narrative style, and can also be used for English reading practice. While reading, note how the narrator portrays social circles and character psychology, and appreciate the tension and restraint of the novella's structure. As a public-domain electronic text, the formatting is plain; reading alongside a guide or annotated edition is recommended to better grasp the historical context and linguistic details.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Chinese readers seeking an initial taste of Maupassant's short and novella-length style
Learners who need free English electronic texts for reading practice
Readers interested in novels about nineteenth-century French society
Literature lovers who prefer short, easily segmented reading

Not a good fit for

Advanced researchers seeking detailed annotations and scholarly introductions
Readers who prefer long-form narratives or strongly plot-driven novels
Those with significant difficulty reading English originals and no aids

Reading tips

Read through once for the plot, then revisit key passages of dialogue and psychological description
Read alongside other Maupassant stories and novellas to compare narrative techniques and ironic tone
Keep a dictionary handy when reading the English original and note recurring period expressions
After each chapter, summarize the setting and character relationships in two or three sentences to clarify the structure

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this version in Chinese or English?

This version is an English electronic text released by Project Gutenberg, with the language marked as English. Chinese readers can use it as English reading material or compare it with a Chinese translation.

Can I understand it without annotations?

The text itself has no detailed annotations, so readers may encounter obstacles related to historical context and place or personal names. It is advisable to use a dictionary and an introductory guide to Maupassant's works, or to read an introduction before the main text.

Is it suitable for classroom use?

It can serve as supplementary reading for courses on English literature or the short story, but because it lacks annotations and teaching aids, instructors need to prepare background materials and discussion questions themselves.

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About the author

Maupassant, Guy de, 1850-1893 Author

Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) was a renowned French novelist. This library holds 69 of his works, including short-story collections, novels, and complete editions. His representative works include Une vie, Boule de Suif, Bel Ami, and multi-volume complete collections of his short stories and writings. Public information is limited, so his biographical details are not elaborated here; nevertheless, the works in this library show that he excelled at short stories while also writing well-structured novels. His short stories often capture turning points in ordinary lives and human weaknesses through calm, restrained narration, while his novels focus on social class, desire, and fate. His language is concise, his observation precise, and his endings forceful, and his influence on later short-story writing is profound.