Bel-Ami

'His rise testifies to the decline of a whole society.' Jean-Paul SartreMaupassant's second novel, Bel-Ami (1885) is the story of a ruthlessly ambitious young man (Georges Duroy, christened 'Bel-Ami' by his female admirers) making it to the top in fin-de-sicle Paris. It is a novel about money, sex, and power, set against the background of the politics of the French colonization of North Africa. ...