The Necklace
By Guy de Maupassant
Madame Mathilda Loisel, the protagonist of The Necklace, aspires to the life of an aristocrat. Born into a family of clerks, she is married to a low-paid but kindly clerk who tries to make her happy. When he obtains an invitation to a fancy dress ball from the Ministry of Education, she refuses to go, having nothing to wear and no jewelry. She acts on her husband’s suggestion to borrow a diamond necklace from her friend Madame Jeanne Forestier. She has a splendid at the ball but discovers when she gets home that she has lost the necklace. Unable to find it the couple decides to buy a replacement, which of course is far beyond their means. They use an inheritance from his father to pay half the cost and borrow heavily to cover the rest. Naturally, they are reduced to impoverished circumstances for 10 years when, by chance, Madame meets her friend Jeanne on the street, who hardly recognize her in her shabby clothes and unkempt mien. Madame Loisel tells her friend about the loss and replacement of the necklace and explains her ragged appearance is result of the hard times she has endured. Her friend confides that the original was indeed a fake and worth a pittance at best. The Necklace is a classic example of de Maupassant’s hallmark gift for ironic surprise endings, has been adapted for film, television, and the stage, and has inspired similar works by no less than Henry James, Somerset Maugham, and others.
