Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (5 August 1850 - 6 July 1893) was a popular 19th-century French writer who's considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's best at that. A protégé of Flaubert, Maupassant's stories are economical and efficient, with not a single word wasted. Many of the stories are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s and several describe the futility of war and the innocent civilians who, caught in the conflict, emerge changed. Although he's best known for his short stories, Maupassant also wrote six novels, including Bel-Ami, which chronicles journalist Georges Duroy's corrupt rise to power by manipulating a series of powerful, intelligent, and wealthy mistresses. In 2011, Bel Ami headed to the big screen, transformed into a movie starring Robert Pattinson and Uma Thurman.
