Biography on Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant was born on August 5, 1850 at Chateau de Miromesnil in

France. He was a descendent of a very old French family. As a boy, Maupassant
went to school at Yvetot in Normandy, and then attended Lycee at Rouen. During his
childhood and youth in Normandy, he picked up a great deal of experiences that he
later put to use in many of his writings. When Maupassant was eleven years old,
his parents got separated. This was probably the most significant events in his
life in that his mother retained custody of him. His mother was the sister of a
close friend of Flaubert, one of the most famous nineteenth-century writers. She
turned to Flaubert for advice on him. Flaubert began tutoring him on various
subjects, mainly writing. Maupassant's association with Flaubert brought him into
the French literary circles. Even though Maupassant was often a member of
gatherings which included such famous writers such as Flaubert, Turgenev, Zola, and
Daudet, he had little interest at the time for a career of writing for himself. As
an adolescent he was much more interested in sports than writing, especially
rowing.
Maupassants education was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War, in which he
served as a member of the French army. After the war was finished, he entered the
French civil service. He first served with the Ministry of Navy and later with the
Ministry of Public Institution. During the between 1873 and 1880 he also served as
a literary apprentice under Flaubert. At this time, Maupassant realized his
weakness as a poet and concentrated on developing his skills as a writer of prose
fiction. Maupassant wrote a collection of short stories that were published with a
writers such as Bola, and Huysmans. Maupassant work outshone all the others by
far. This is Maupassant became recognized as a writer. He became one of the most
famous and well paid French authors of his time. In the years 1984 through 1985 he
produced a great number of high caliber fiction. Most of these stories dealt with
his experiences as a child in Normandy.
During 1886-1887 Maupassant began to show signs of mental illness, probably
the results of venereal disease. A sea voyage to improve his health enabled him to
make some gains toward recovery. He was overtaken by paralysis and severe
hallucinations due to syphilis. He died in Paris on July 6, 1893.