Great Writers: Guy de Maupassant

A short-story occasionally appears on the horizon that redefines the world and jars it into focus and  Boule De Suife is one of them.  For any writer seeking to master the short story there is no better beginning to the instruction of this most difficult of forms than this collection.

Guy de Maupassant's classic opening story (also entitled 'Boule de Suif') takes a knife to French society and ruthlessly peels away its many layers. Set during the Franco-Prussian War, Maupassant descends into the mores of the rich and educated and reveals them for what they are.

What is fascinating about Maupassant's tale is how in the confines of the short story form he is able to show how delicate the fabric of human illusions is and how easily it is torn asunder.

Guy de Maupassant

Whether you read it in the original French or otherwise, c'est formidable.

ZHZ.

Great Books: Dune by Frank Herbert

I read Dune when I was twelve and I revisit it continually as its lessons remain as potent today.

Dune has a brooding quality that erodes limits and barriers and emphasises certain realities and hints at greater depths and mysteries.  There is a sense of timelessness to this classic eco-religio-political piece of science fiction that defies interpretation and continues to tantalise.

Yet Dune was turned down by twenty or so publishers before it was finally accepted and even then, grudgingly so.  There lies hope for writers who achieve only rejection instead of recognition.  Publishers are businessmen: don't expect them to fund art for art's sake.

In today's world of eco-nightmare and addiction to petroleum, in the nature, shape and influence of "spice melange" there is a vital message for all us and there lies one secret of this classic: it answers questions of the day in perpetuity - whoever controls the ultimate source of power controls the universe and whoever is willing to destroy it, like Paul Atreides, will rule.  What will follow, however, may be unspeakable.

Dune, remains the greatest single science-fiction novel ever written, not simply due to the quality, depth and cadence of the writing, but because of the universe Frank Herbert wrought.

If ever there was a contender for a science-fiction novel worthy of the Nobel Award then this is it.


ZHZ.