Contes et nouvelles de Maupassant: Pour une poétique du recueil (review)

Most 21^st-century readers of Maupassant will almost certainly have first encountered the author through an anthology of his stories, edited and published long after his death. The titles and contents of such posthumous editions often bear little resemblance to the fifteen volumes of stories which Maupassant collated and published during his lifetime, between 1881 and 1891. In her detailed and meticulous study, Emmanuèle Grandadam argues that these original editions deserve far greater respect and attention. Twentieth-century editors, such as René Dumesnil in his 1934–38 edition of Maupassant's complete works, misleadingly asserted that the writer selected and collated his stories for publication in book form in an arbitrary, opportunistic or even random fashion, thereby legitimizing their decision to replace the author's ordering of his stories with their own selection principles (which are usually either thematic or chronological). In fact, the only complete modern edition of the Contes et nouvelles which follows the order of publication established by Maupassant is that published by Laffont in the "Bouquins" series (1988). Some recent paperback editions also reproduce the contents of individual volumes faithfully. But few editors or critics have paused to consider the organizing principles and impact of Maupassant's original collections: "Le recueil est ainsi le grand absent de la critique" (52). The fact that only three out of fifteen volume titles refer explicitly to a range of stories (rather than simply adopting the title of the lead story) may further explain why many editors have failed to discern any unifying factor in the other twelve collections. Grandadam's aim is to demonstrate that it is possible to discover both æsthetic and thematic unity in all the collections. In some cases, this is readily apparent. Thus the stories in Monsieur Parent demonstrate that "Les liens affectifs et passionnels sont les réponses des héros au vide ontologique de leur vie" (85), while La Petite Roque explores "la mise en récit du désir amoureux, présenté comme force asociale," and both editions of Mademoiselle Fifi offer "une enquête sur le féminin" (173). Whereas Toine uncharacteristically stresses the comic and success, Le Horla is effectively its bleak negative. But she also reveals a large range of more subtle intratextual echoes, often created by the positioning of particular stories within the collection. Maupassant's correspondence in fact shows that he paid close attention to the organization and selection of his collections (chronology or proximity of composition were rarely determining factors, and one third of the stories were published only in the press and never made the transition into books). In other cases, reversals and contrasts are important structural features: for example, fantastic texts tend to be isolated from each other in a way that intensifies their effect, while the collective title Contes du jour et de la nuit has to be read ironically, since most of the tales are actually somber. All in all, this lucid and scholarly study makes a persuasive heuristic and hermeneutic case for exploring and respecting Maupassant's original compilations. It includes a useful tabular appendix, full bibliography, and index (although the reference to a story called "La Leçon de latin" [417] appears to be a typo for "La Question du latin").