Bel Ami

Guy de Maupassant

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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French

Columbia University Press
18 November 2025

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Classic fiction (pre c 1945)

Series: Cletham Classics

The rise of a scoundrel. The anatomy of a world. In Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant delivers a razor-sharp portrait of a man who climbs the social ladder not by virtue, talent, or labor-but by charm, seduction, and sheer opportunism. Georges Duroy begins with nothing: a handsome face, a military past, and the hunger to rise. What follows is a calculated ascent through the bedrooms and salons of Paris, each conquest a rung in his climb toward wealth and power.

First published in 1885, Bel-Ami is a novel of astonishing modernity-merciless in its view of ambition, cynical in its rendering of the press, and unflinching in its depiction of how privilege is acquired and maintained. Maupassant, the great stylist of the Third Republic, writes with a cold eye and a glittering blade. His Paris is a world of surface and strategy, where love is leverage and morality optional.

By: Guy de Maupassant
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Volume: 1
Dimensions: Height: 178mm, Width: 102mm,
ISBN: 9781967751334
ISBN 10: 1967751331
Series: Cletham Classics
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 18 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893)was a French writer and master of the short story, celebrated for his precision, irony, and psychological depth. A protégé of Flaubert, he chronicled the hypocrisies of bourgeois society and the raw instincts beneath its surface. Though best known for his short fiction, his novels—including Bel-Ami and Une Vie—showcase the same clarity of style and bleak insight.