Guy de Maupassant (5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author widely celebrated as a global master of the short story. Associated with the naturalist literary school, his works are renowned for their economy of style, psychological depth, and stark, often pessimistic depictions of human fate and social hypocrisy. Guided by his literary mentor, Gustave Flaubert, Maupassant produced a massive body of work—including 300 short stories, six novels, and three travel books—in a single, hyper-prolific decade between 1880 and 1891