Guy de Maupassant: Citations en anglais
Guy de Maupassant était écrivain français. Citations en anglais.“A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.”
Source: Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques
Source: The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, Part One
“I entered literary life as a meteor, and I shall leave it like a thunderbolt.”
As quoted in "Guy De Maupassant : A Study" by Pol Neveux, in Original Short Stories http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3090
“There is only one good thing in life, and that is love.”
"The Love of Long Ago"
Source: The Complete Short Stories of de Maupassant
Contexte: There is only one good thing in life, and that is love. And how you misunderstand it! how you spoil it! You treat it as something solemn like a sacrament, or something to be bought, like a dress.
Variant translation:
She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born by a blunder of destiny in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, married by a man rich and distinguished; and she let them make a match for her with a little clerk in the Department of Education.
La Parure (The Necklace) (1884)
Contexte: The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.
Boule de Suif (1880)
Contexte: The same thing happens whenever the established order of things is upset, when security no longer exists, when all those rights usually protected by the law of man or of Nature are at the mercy of unreasoning, savage force. The earthquake crushing a whole nation under falling roofs; the flood let loose, and engulfing in its swirling depths the corpses of drowned peasants, along with dead oxen and beams torn from shattered houses; or the army, covered with glory, murdering those who defend themselves, making prisoners of the rest, pillaging in the name of the Sword, and giving thanks to God to the thunder of cannon — all these are appalling scourges, which destroy all belief in eternal justice, all that confidence we have been taught to feel in the protection of Heaven and the reason of man.
“The anguish of suspense made men even desire the arrival of the enemy.”
Boule de Suif (1880)
Contexte: Life seemed to have stopped short; the shops were shut, the streets deserted. Now and then an inhabitant, awed by the silence, glided swiftly by in the shadow of the walls. The anguish of suspense made men even desire the arrival of the enemy.
“For several days in succession fragments of a defeated army had passed through the town.”
Boule de Suif (1880)
Contexte: For several days in succession fragments of a defeated army had passed through the town. They were mere disorganized bands, not disciplined forces. The men wore long, dirty beards and tattered uniforms; they advanced in listless fashion, without a flag, without a leader. All seemed exhausted, worn out, incapable of thought or resolve, marching onward merely by force of habit, and dropping to the ground with fatigue the moment they halted.
“At the end of a short time, once the first terror had subsided, calm was again restored.”
Boule de Suif (1880)
Contexte: At the end of a short time, once the first terror had subsided, calm was again restored. In many houses the Prussian officer ate at the same table with the family. He was often well-bred, and, out of politeness, expressed sympathy with France and repugnance at being compelled to take part in the war. This sentiment was received with gratitude; besides, his protection might be needful some day or other.