Like Death

In this slim novel, Maupassant takes as his subject a long affair and its slow burn of love and jealousy. Feted artist Olivier Bertin, “the chosen painter of Parisiennes,” enjoyed a career of enduring success; “Fortune led him to the threshold of old age, petting and caressing him all the way.” The painter’s affair with Anne de Guilleroy, wife of a “Norman Squire,” begins when he first sees her dressed in mourning, and he takes her as his muse, inviting her to sit for a painting. The novel charts the early euphoric stage of their love, when “he went to bed early, still vibrating with happiness,” through the long plateau of amitié amoureuse. However, as Anna and her daughter enter a party one night, the painter observes that Anna is “like a flower in full bloom” while her 18-year-old daughter, Annette, is “just blossoming.” Olivier becomes torn between his affection for the two, and his love becomes complicated, “feeling for the mother his revived passion and covering the daughter with an obscure tenderness.” Anna, aware of her lover’s increasing ambivalence, becomes tormented and sickened with jealousy of her daughter as well as becoming aware of her own aging, while Annette remains blissfully innocent and oblivious to the amorous drama. Though the novel has its quaint charms, its Freudian love triangle often feels heavy-handed and its characters flat. The novel builds to a dramatic yet predictable climax, lacking the freshness of Maupassant’s best work. [em](Jan.) [/em]