The Necklace (La Parure) is a short story by Guy de Maupassant. By the time "The Necklace" was first published, Maupassant had already established his reputation as one of France's foremost short story writers. The Necklace was first published in 1884 in the French newspaper Le Gaulois. The story has become one of Maupassant's most popular works and is well known for its twist ending.
The Necklace tells the story of a nineteenth-century middle class French couple, Monsieur and Madame Mathilde Loisel. One day, Monsieur Loisel was given an invitation to ball. Madame Loisel did not want to go because she has no suitable dress or jewelry for the dance. The clerk sacrifices his savings to buy her a dress, and suggests that she borrow some jewelry from her old friend, Madame Jeanne Forestier. Accordingly, Madame Loisel borrows a beautiful diamond necklace from her. At the dance, the pretty Madame Loisel is the center of attraction, with even senior officials admiring her beauty and grace. She has a wonderful time until the early hours of the morning. When the couple returns home, they discover that the necklace is missing.
Unable to bear the shame of informing Madame Forestier, Monsieur and Madame Loisel decided to buy an identical diamond necklace from the Palais Royal as a replacement. But, the necklace is really expensive and they end up paying thirty-four thousand francs. Both Monsieur and Madame Loisel are forced to takes on extra jobs and live in poverty. At the end of the ten years, Madame Loisel, now older, tougher, more worn, and less graceful from years of hard manual labor has an opportunity to tell her old friend of the lost necklace. Madame Forestier is shocked and informs Madame Loisel that her original necklace was, in fact, an imitation, "...not worth over five hundred francs!"
For me, the title is not that catchy but it’s alright because it fits the selection. Another thing that I noticed is that the sequencing of ideas was really in order. The beginning of the story was really boring but as the story goes, you will start to realize that the story is really interesting. One thing that I just don’t like with the work is it has so many words which are hard to understand. But, if you read between the lines, you will get the true and real meaning of those words.
This story is a story cleverly planned and superbly executed. I like the way the writer, Guy de Maupassant, gave and presented the detail in the story. The plot has a throbbing quality, a sequenced rise and fall which successfully retain the attention of the readers until the end. And, the reader will be surprised once he finished reading it because it is unexpected that the ending will be like that. The ending was really surprising and it is perfect. Also, you will realize some things in life by reading this. In general, the story was really a good and interesting one.
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