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“The Necklace," published in 1881, is a short story—among the finest surprise-ending stories in any language. It is a
compact, neat little package with just the right amount of character and plot development and nary a wasted word. It is
one of many of Maupassant’s short stories that earned him recognition as a master of the genre.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

French writer Guy de Maupassant (August 5, 1850–July 6, 1893) wrote short stories such as " The Necklace" and "Bel-Ami"
as well as poetry, novels, and newspaper articles. He was an author of the naturalist and realist schools of writing and is
best known for his short stories, which are considered highly influential on much of modern literature. He is known to be the
Father of the Short Story.

Fast Facts: Guy de Maupassant

 Known For: French author of short stories, novels, and poetry
 Also Known As: Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant, Guy de Valmont, Joseph Prunier, Maufrigneuse
 Born: August 5, 1850 in Tourville-sur-Arques, France
 Parents: Laure Le Poittevin, Gustave de Maupassant
 Died: July 6, 1893 in Passy, Paris, France
 Education: Institution Leroy-Petit, in Rouen, Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen
 Published Works: Boule de Suif, La Maison Tellier, The Necklace, A Piece of String, Mademoiselle Fifi, Miss
Harriet,  My Uncle Jules,  Found on a Drowned Man, The Wreck, Une Vie, Bel-Ami, Pierre et Jean
 Notable Quote: "If I could, I would stop the passage of time. But hour follows on hour, minute on minute, each
second robbing me of a morsel of myself for the nothing of tomorrow. I shall never experience this moment again."

YOUR WORD BANK

As you read through the selection, write down the words that are new to you and find its meaning in a dictionary.
Write down the word and its meaning on the space provided below.

WRITE YOUR ANSWERS ON YOUR NOTEBOOK

PREPARE FOR A VOCABULARY QUIZ

1. blundered 11. ghastly

2. antechambers 12. homage

3. exquisite 13. Scotch broth

4. gleaming 14. ecstatically

5. murmured 15. stammered

6. anguish 16. ecstasy

7. shabbiness 17. inscrutable

8. superimposed 18. trifled

9. bewilderment 19. asparagus

10. ornaments 20. petulantly

THE NECKLACE
Guy de Maupassant

She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as sight of the little Breton girl who came to do the work in her
though fate had blundered over her, into a family of little house aroused heart-broken regrets and hopeless
artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no dreams in her mind. She imagined silent antechambers,
means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by heavy with Oriental tapestries, lit by torches in lofty bronze
a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be sockets, with two tall footmen in knee-breeches sleeping in
married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Education. Her large arm-chairs, overcome by the heavy warmth of the
tastes were simple because she had never been able to stove. She imagined vast saloons hung with antique silks,
afford any other, but she was as unhappy as though she exquisite pieces of furniture supporting priceless
had married beneath her; for women have no caste or ornaments, and small, charming, perfumed rooms, created
class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth just for little parties of intimate friends, men who were
or family. their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, famous and sought after, whose homage roused every
their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put other woman's envious longings.
the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land. When she sat down for dinner at the round table covered
She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every with a three-days-old cloth, opposite her husband, who took
delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her the cover off the soup-tureen, exclaiming delightedly: "Aha!
house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. Scotch broth! What could be better?" she imagined delicate
All these things, of which other women of her class would meals, gleaming silver, tapestries peopling the walls with
not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her. The folk of a past age and strange birds in faery forests; she
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imagined delicate food served in marvellous dishes, She uttered a cry of delight.
murmured gallantries, listened to with an inscrutable smile "That's true. I never thought of it."
as one trifled with the rosy flesh of trout or wings of Next day she went to see her friend and told her her
asparagus chicken. trouble.
She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the Madame Forestier went to her dressing-table, took up a
only things she loved; she felt that she was made for them. large box, brought it to Madame Loisel, opened it, and said:
She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be "Choose, my dear."
wildly attractive and sought after. First she saw some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a
She had a rich friend, an old school friend whom she Venetian cross in gold and gems, of exquisite
refused to visit, because she suffered so keenly when she workmanship. She tried the effect of the jewels before the
returned home. She would weep whole days, with grief, mirror, hesitating, unable to make up her mind to leave
regret, despair, and misery. them, to give them up. She kept on asking:
"Haven't you anything else?"
One evening her husband came home with an exultant air, "Yes. Look for yourself. I don't know what you would like
holding a large envelope in his hand. best."
" Here's something for you," he said. Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb
Swiftly she tore the paper and drew out a printed card on diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetousIy. Her
which were these words: hands trembled as she lifted it. She fastened it round her
"The Minister of Education and Madame Ramponneau neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight
request the pleasure of the company of Monsieur and of herself.
Madame Loisel at the Ministry on the evening of Monday, Then, with hesitation, she asked in anguish:
January the 18th." "Could you lend me this, just this alone?"
Instead of being delighted, as her-husband hoped, she "Yes, of course."
flung the invitation petulantly across the table, murmuring: She flung herself on her friend's breast, embraced her
"What do you want me to do with this?" frenziedly, and went away with her treasure. The day of the
"Why, darling, I thought you'd be pleased. You never go party arrived. Madame Loisel was a success. She was the
out, and this is a great occasion. I had tremendous trouble prettiest woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling, and
to get it. Every one wants one; it's very select, and very few quite above herself with happiness. All the men stared at
go to the clerks. You'll see all the really big people there." her, inquired her name, and asked to be introduced to her.
She looked at him out of furious eyes, and said impatiently: All the Under-Secretaries of State were eager to waltz with
"And what do you suppose I am to wear at such an affair?" her. The Minister noticed her.
He had not thought about it; he stammered: She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with
"Why, the dress you go to the theatre in. It looks very nice, no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the
to me...." pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of
He stopped, stupefied and utterly at a loss when he saw this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she
that his wife was beginning to cry. Two large tears ran had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to
slowly down from the corners of her eyes towards the her feminine heart.
corners of her mouth. She left about four o'clock in the morning. Since midnight
"What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you?" her husband had been dozing in a deserted little room, in
he faltered. company with three other men whose wives were having a
But with a violent effort she overcame her grief and replied good time. He threw over her shoulders the garments he
in a calm voice, wiping her wet cheeks: had brought for them to go home in, modest everyday
"Nothing. Only I haven't a dress and so I can't go to this clothes, whose poverty clashed with the beauty of the ball-
party. Give your invitation to some friend of yours whose dress. She was conscious of this and was anxious to hurry
wife will be turned out better than I shall." away, so that she should not be noticed by the other
He was heart-broken. women putting on their costly furs.
"Look here, Mathilde," he persisted. :What would be the Loisel restrained her.
cost of a suitable dress, which you could use on other "Wait a little. You'll catch cold in the open. I'm going to fetch
occasions as well, something very simple?" a cab."
She thought for several seconds, reckoning up prices and But she did not listen to him and rapidly descended-the
also wondering for how large a sum she could ask without staircase. When they were out in the street they could not
bringing upon herself an immediate refusal and an find a cab; they began to look for one, shouting at the
exclamation of horror from the careful-minded clerk. drivers whom they saw passing in the distance.
At last she replied with some hesitation: They walked down towards the Seine, desperate and
"I don't know exactly, but I think I could do it on four shivering. At last they found on the quay one of those old
hundred francs." night prowling carriages which are only to be seen in Paris
He grew slightly pale, for this was exactly the amount he after dark, as though they were ashamed of their
had been saving for a gun, intending to get a little shooting shabbiness in the daylight.
next summer on the plain of Nanterre with some friends It brought them to their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and
who went lark-shooting there on Sundays. sadly they walked up to their own apartment. It was the
Nevertheless he said: "Very well. I'll give you four hundred end, for her. As for him, he was thinking that he must be at
francs. But try and get a really nice dress with the money." the office at ten.
The day of the party drew near, and Madame Loisel She took off the garments in which she had wrapped her
seemed sad, uneasy and anxious. Her dress was ready, shoulders, so as to see herself in all her glory before the
however. One evening her husband said to her: mirror. But suddenly she uttered a cry. The necklace was
"What's the matter with you? You've been very odd for the no longer round her neck!
last three days." "What's the matter with you?" asked her husband, already
"I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single half undressed.
stone, to wear," she replied. "I shall look absolutely no one. She turned towards him in the utmost distress.
I would almost rather not go to the party." "I . . . I . . . I've no longer got Madame Forestier's
"Wear flowers," he said. "They're very smart at this time of necklace. . . ."
the year. For ten francs you could get two or three He started with astonishment.
gorgeous roses." "What! . . . Impossible!"
She was not convinced. They searched in the folds of her dress, in the folds of the
"No . . . there's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the coat, in the pockets, everywhere. They could not find it.
middle of a lot of rich women." "Are you sure that you still had it on when you came away
"How stupid you are!" exclaimed her husband. "Go and see from the ball?" he asked.
Madame Forestier and ask her to lend you some jewels. "Yes, I touched it in the hall at the Ministry."
You know her quite well enough for that."
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"But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer,
fall." to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted,
"Yes. Probably we should. Did you take the number of the fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money.
cab?" Every month notes had to be paid off, others renewed, time
"No. You didn't notice it, did you?" gained.
"No." Her husband worked in the evenings at putting straight a
They stared at one another, dumbfounded. At last Loisel merchant's accounts, and often at night he did copying at
put on his clothes again. twopence-halfpenny a page.
"I'll go over all the ground we walked," he said, "and see if I And this life lasted ten years.
can't find it." At the end of ten years everything was paid off, everything,
And he went out. She remained in her evening clothes, the usurer's charges and the accumulation of superimposed
lacking strength to get into bed, huddled on a chair, without interest.
volition or power of thought. Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become like all
Her husband returned about seven. He had found nothing. the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households.
He went to the police station, to the newspapers, to offer a Her hair was badly done, her skirts were awry, her hands
reward, to the cab companies, everywhere that a ray of were red. She spoke in a shrill voice, and the water slopped
hope impelled him. all over the floor when she scrubbed it. But sometimes,
She waited all day long, in the same state of bewilderment when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the
at this fearful catastrophe. window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at
Loisel came home at night, his face lined and pale; he had which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.
discovered nothing. What would have happened if she had never lost those
"You must write to your friend," he said, "and tell her that jewels. Who knows? Who knows? How strange life is, how
you've broken the clasp of her necklace and are getting it fickle! How little is needed to ruin or to save!
mended. That will give us time to look about us." One Sunday, as she had gone for a walk along the
She wrote at his dictation. Champs-Elysees to freshen herself after the labours of the
week, she caught sight suddenly of a woman who was
By the end of a week they had lost all hope. taking a child out for a walk. It was Madame Forestier, still
Loisel, who had aged five years, declared: young, still beautiful, still attractive.
"We must see about replacing the diamonds." Madame Loisel was conscious of some emotion. Should
Next day they took the box which had held the necklace she speak to her? Yes, certainly. And now that she had
and went to the jewellers whose name was inside. He paid, she would tell her all. Why not?
consulted his books. She went up to her.
"It was not I who sold this necklace, Madame; I must have "Good morning, Jeanne."
merely supplied the clasp." The other did not recognise her, and was surprised at being
Then they went from jeweller to jeweller, searching for thus familiarly addressed by a poor woman.
another necklace like the first, consulting their memories, "But . . . Madame . . ." she stammered. "I don't know . . .
both ill with remorse and anguish of mind. you must be making a mistake."
In a shop at the Palais-Royal they found a string of "No . . . I am Mathilde Loisel."
diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the one they Her friend uttered a cry.
were looking for. It was worth forty thousand francs. They "Oh! . . . my poor Mathilde, how you have
were allowed to have it for thirty-six thousand. changed! . . ."
They begged the jeweller not tO sell it for three days. And "Yes, I've had some hard times since I saw you last; and
they arranged matters on the understanding that it would be many sorrows . . . and all on your account."
taken back for thirty-four thousand francs, if the first one "On my account! . . . How was that?"
were found before the end of February. "You remember the diamond necklace you lent me for the
Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs left to him by ball at the Ministry?"
his father. He intended to borrow the rest. "Yes. Well?"
He did borrow it, getting a thousand from one man, five "Well, I lost it."
hundred from another, five louis here, three louis there. He "How could you? Why, you brought it back."
gave notes of hand, entered into ruinous agreements, did "I brought you another one just like it. And for the last ten
business with usurers and the whole tribe of money- years we have been paying for it. You realise it wasn't easy
lenders. He mortgaged the whole remaining years of his for us; we had no money. . . . Well, it's paid for at last, and
existence, risked his signature without even knowing it he I'm glad indeed."
could honour it, and, appalled at the agonising face of the Madame Forestier had halted.
future, at the black misery about to fall upon him, at the "You say you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine?"
prospect of every possible physical privation and moral "Yes. You hadn't noticed it? They were very much alike."
torture, he went to get the new necklace and put down upon And she smiled in proud and innocent happiness.
the jeweller's counter thirty-six thousand francs. Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her two hands.
When Madame Loisel took back the necklace to Madame "Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth
Forestier, the latter said to her in a chilly voice: at the very most five hundred francs!
"You ought to have brought it back sooner; I might have
needed it."
She did not, as her friend had feared, open the case. If she
had noticed the substitution, what would she have thought?
What would she have said? Would she not have taken her
for a thief?

Madame Loisel came to know the ghastly life of abject

poverty. From the very first she played her part heroically.
This fearful debt must be paid off. She would pay it. The
servant was dismissed. They changed their flat; they took a
garret under the roof.
She came to know the heavy work of the house, the hateful
duties of the kitchen. She washed the plates, wearing out
her pink nails on the coarse pottery and the bottoms of
pans. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts and dish-cloths,
and hung them out to dry on a string; every morning she
took the dustbin down into the street and carried up the
water, stopping on each landing to get her breath. And, clad
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