Novels
Short Stories
"The Terror"A Country Excursion
A Coup d'Etat
A Coward
A Cremation
A Dead Woman's Secret
A Duel
A Family
A Family Affair
A Father's Confession
A Ghost
A Humble Drama
A Meeting
A Mother of Monsters
A New Year's Gift
A Normandy Joke
A Parricide
A Piece of String
A Portrait
A Queer Night in Paris
A Recollection
A Sale
A Sister's Confession
A Stroll
A Tress of Hair
A Vagabond
A Vendetta
A Wedding Gift
A Widow
Abandoned
After
Alexandre
All Over
An Affair of State
An Artifice
An Uncomfortable Bed
At Sea
Belhomme's Beast
Bellfower
Bertha
Beside Schopenhauer's Corpse
Boitelle
Boule de Suif
Clair de Lune
Clochette
Coco
Confessing
Denis
Discovery
Dreams
Farewell
Fascination
Father Matthew
Father Milon
Forgiveness
Found on a Drowned Man
Friend Joseph
Friend Patience
His Avenger
Humiliation
In the Spring
In the Wood
Indiscretion
Indiscretion
Julie Romain
Lasting Love
Legend of Mont St. Michel
Lieutenant Lare's Marriage
Little Louise Roque
Madame Baptiste
Madame Hermet
Madame Husson's Rosier
Madame Parisse
Mademoiselle Cocotte
Mademoiselle Fifi
Mademoiselle Pearl
Magnetism
Martine
Minuet
Miss Harriet
Misti
Moiron
Monsieur Parent
Moonlight
Mother and Son
Mother Sauvage
My Twenty-Five Days
My Uncle Jules
My Uncle Sosthenes
My Wife
Old Amable
Old Judas
Old Mongilet
On the River
Our Letters
Pierrot
Queen Hortense
Regret
Rosalie Prudent
Rose
Saint Anthony
Simon's Papa
Suicides
Sundays of a Bourgeois
That Costly Ride
That Pig of a Morin
The Accursed Bread
The Adopted Son
The Apparition
The Baroness
The Beggar
The Blind Man
The Child
The Christening
The Colonel's Ideas
The Corsican Bandit
The Cripple
The Devil
The Diamond Necklace
The Diary of a Madman
The Dispenser of Holy Water
The Donkey
The Door
The Dowry
The Drunkard
The Effeminates
The Englishman of Etretat
The False Gems
The Farmer's Wife
The Father
The First Snowfall
The Fishing Hole
The Gamekeeper
The Grave
The Hairpin
The Hand
The Horrible
The Impolite Sex
The Inn
The Kiss
The Legion of Honor
The Little Cask
The Log
The Love of Long Ago
The Magic Couch
The Maison Tellier
The Marquis de Fumerol
The Mask
The Model
The Moribund
The Mountain Pool
The Mustache
The Necklace
The Orphan
The Parrot
The Patron
The Penguins' Rock
The Piece of String
The Prisoners
The Question of Latin
The Rabbit
The Relic
The Rondoli Sisters
The Snipe
The Son
The Spasm
The Story of a Farm Girl
The Test
The Thief
The Trip of the Horla
The Umbrella
The Unknown
The Vendetta
The Wardrobe
The Will
The Wolf
The Wreck
The Wrong House
Theodule Sabot's Confession
Timbuctoo
Toine
Tombstones
Two Friends
Two Little Soldiers
Useless Beauty
Waiter, a "Bock"
Walter Schnaff's Adventure
Yvette Samoris
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (Aug 5, 1850 - Jul 6, 1893) is considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and his work influenced Somerset Maugham, O. Henry, Anton Chekhov and Henry James among others. He was a popular French writer and fought in the Franco-Prussian war as a young man. He drew heavily on that experience and that war provides the setting for many of his stories which often depict the tragedy and suffering of innocent civilians caught in war's path. He also found inspiration in the not-so-admirable behavior of the bourgeoisie and they too are the subject of his biting pessimism.
Maupassant suffered from mental illness in his later years and attempted suicide on January 2nd, 1892. He was committed to a private asylum in Paris and died the following year.
His most famous work for English readers is probably The Necklace. If you are unfamiliar with his works, also consider A Piece of String, Mademoiselle Fifi, Miss Harriet, My Uncle Jules, Found on a Drowned Man and The Wreck as starting points.