In this volume of stories by Maupassant, great care has been exercised in making the selection thoroughly representative. Maupassant, who still stands unchallenged in the world's literature as the supreme master of the short story, was a versatile writer. He not only reproduced life with a rare fidelity and in a pure, artistic form, but his range of observation was wide and covered many phases of life. In assembling these stories the aim has been to present the best specimens from every genre, to give the art of Maupassant complete in the brief compass of a single book.