Page:Pierre and Jean - Clara Bell - 1902.djvu/46

 ''protegé under a severe discipline in the art of writing. It was not until 1880 that Maupassant was suddenly made famous by two published volumes. The one was a collection of poems, "Des Vers," twenty pieces, most of them of a narrative character, brilliant in execution and audacious in tone. One of these, slightly exceeding its fellows in crudity, was threatened with a prosecution in law as an outrage on manners, and the fortune of the book was secured. The other venture was equally interesting. Maupassant, who had thrown in his lot with the Naturalist Novelists, contributed a short tale, "Boule de Suif" to the volume called "Les Soirées de Médan," to which Zola, Huysmans, Hennique, Céard, and Paul Alexis also affixed their names. He was now fairly started on the stream of public composition, and during the following ten years he issued tale after tale with unflagging industry. In 1881 "La Maison Tellier," in 1883 "Mademoiselle Fifi" and the longer novel of "Une Vie," competed with the entertaining short stories called "Contes de la Bécasse" in riveting public attention to the brilliant young writer. Maupassant travelled, and he recomited his adventures in "Au Soleil" (1884). To this same year of abundance belong three marvellous volumes, named after a principal story in each, "Les Sœurs'' xxxviii