L'Inutile beauté

Paris, Victor Havard, 1890

Maupassant, Guy de. Useless Beauty.Paris, Victor Havard, 1890. Publisher's booklet.Rare first edition of this collection of eleven short stories by Maupassant, the last collection published during his lifetime.Valuable deluxe copy, one of 50 on Holland paper, unnumbered, the only large paper issue.Carteret, II, 122; Vicaire, V, 622-623; Clouzot, 198. "Useless Beauty is the rarest story I have ever written," wrote Maupassant in 1890. This story is a condensation of Maupassant's recurring themes: the difficulty of coexistence between the sexes and the power of doubt pervading human relationships, the uncanny strangeness of figures of motherhood, the uncertainty of fatherhood, and above all, the enigma of woman.Useless Beautystands out immediately through its uniqueness. The story breaks with what Maupassant had conceived up until then. Contrary to depictions of cunning women, or characters as victims, the heroine in this story takes her life into her own hands and makes choices at odds with collective consciousness and the roles it imposes. The image of woman offered by this story is a kind of social and human tidal wave of which the Comtesse de Mascaret is the initiator.Useless Beautyputs at the forefront the crisis of the couple—a new image of woman and of man. In addition toUseless Beauty, which gives its title to the book, there are ten other stories:The Olive Grove,Fly,The Drowned Man,The Ordeal,The Mask,A Portrait,The Invalid,The Superior's 25 Francs,A Divorce Case, andWho Knows?show here the full range of Maupassant's genius. The volume brings together tales and stories, Norman and Parisian episodes, fantastic tales, and domestic scenes...It was to Flaubert that Guy de Maupassant submitted his first literary attempts, poems or tales. The Master of Croisset encouraged him, guided him, and enabled him to meet Zola, Huysmans, Daudet, and the Goncourt brothers.Beautiful and valuable copy with all edges untrimmed, from the deluxe issue, preserved in its original wrappers, as issued, a rare and sought-after condition.Rare first edition; a precious copy printed on large paper and kept in its contemporary wrappers, as issued.