Published: 1885
Category: Ironic
Text available at: Classic Reader
Summary:
A young woman's longing for a higher place in society nets her, and her husband, a life of drudgery and debt.
Points of interest:
Maupassant gives the source and cause of Mathilde's (Mme. Loisel's) longing in one line:
"She had a friend, a former schoolmate at the convent, who was rich, and whom she did not like to go to see any more because she felt so sad when she came home."