A Life

A Life (French : Une vie) is the first novel written by the French writer Guy de Maupassant (1850 - 1893). It is set in the 19th century and tells the story of the unhappy marriage between an idealistic woman of aristocratic background and a cynical man. SUMMARY : Jeanne, daughter of Baron Simon-Jacques and Baroness Adelaide, is a young aristocrat who, for his seventeen years, leaves the convent to begin a real "life". She leaves home with her father and mother who give her a castle to live with her next husband. The latter, Julien de Lamare, whom she meets in the few days following his departure from the convent, is a real miser and an egotist, but she only discovers it after their marriage. He cheats Jeanne with her servant Rosalie who gets pregnant, then with a neighbor named Gilberte de Fourville who said she was friends with Jeanne ...