Guy de Maupassant by Isaac Babel

First published: "Giui de Mopassan," 1932 (English translation, 1955)

Type of plot: Impressionistic

Time of work: Winter, 1916-1917

Locale: St. Petersburg

Principal Characters:

• The narrator, the protagonist, a freelance journalist and story writer, twenty years old
• Raisa Bendersky, a woman attempting to translate the works of Guy de Maupassant into Russian and requiring the assistance of the narrator
• Bendersky, her husband, a converted Jew and a lawyer, banker, and owner of a publishing house

The Story

Although unnamed, the protagonist is approximately identical with the author, as the latter was in the winter of 1916-1917: a young Jewish writer from Odessa who has moved to the capital illegally, on the eve of the February Revolution.

The young writer, though poverty-stricken and selling almost nothing he has written, is so supremely confident that he spurns an offer of a job as a clerk. He sees himself as superior to Leo Tolstoy, whose religion was "all fear. He was frightened by the cold, by old age, by death."

The narrator finds acceptable employment when Bendersky's publishing house decides to bring out a new edition of Guy de Maupassant's works; Bendersky's wife, Raisa, has begun some translations, but they are flat and lifeless. The narrator is summoned to assist Raisa; he meets her at the Bendersky mansion on Nevsky Prospect—a habitation decorated in profoundly poor taste. The Benderskys are converted Jews, in consequence of which they have been allowed to grow rich.

The narrator would despise Raisa as he does her husband—"a yellow-faced Jew with a bald skull"—were it not for the fact that he finds her ravishing on first sight (although, it must be admitted, the young man finds all women ravishing, including his forty-year-old washerwoman, Katya). The fact that Raisa is enfolded in pink layers of fat is all to the good—precisely Isaac Babel's type, as readers may know from his other stories.

The narrator meets Raisa daily to go over her translations and to instruct her in literary style. Although Raisa has almost no feeling for style, her redeeming feature is that she recognizes that fact. Additionally to her credit, she declares that Maupassant is the only passion of her life.

Gradually it becomes apparent that the basic plot fine of Babel's story centers on the attempted seduction of Raisa by her new young assistant, who is probably only half her age. As the two become acquainted, the narrator tells stories of his childhood that, to his "amazement turned out to be "very sordid." He frightens Raisa and moves her to pity.

Babel's continuing discussion of Maupassant throughout the story contributes to an ongoing instruction in art and literary style that is central to the work. Maupassant also becomes an element in the plot, however, in that his story "L'Aveau" ("The Confession"), which Raisa and the narrator work on together for a very long time, is retold in some detail. The reader learns that Monsieur Polyte the coachman, who drives red-haired Celeste to market twice a week, continually attempts to seduce Celeste through innuendo and coarse suggestion. Finally, after two years, he succeeds: "What about having some fun today, Mamselle Celeste?" She replies, "I am at your disposal, Monsieur Polyte." It is interesting that Babel describes Celeste, with her "mighty calves in red stockings," almost as he does Raisa, with her "strong soft calves . . . planted wide apart on the carpet." He mentions also that the cart in which Polyte and Celeste make love is pulled by a white mare that keeps on moving forward at a walking pace.

At this point in the narrative, the young writer is full of wine and is alone with Raisa in her big house. He clumsily kisses her, and she recoils. She pushes him into a faraway chair, but he suddenly lunges for her, knocking all twenty-nine volumes of Maupassant off a shelf.

The reader is not told explicitly what happens next. After the books fall to the floor, however, the narrator remarks "and the white mare of my fate went on at a walking pace"—an obvious reference to "The Confession." The reader also learns that the young man has spent enough additional time at the Bendersky house to become sober. He leaves for home near midnight, wonderfully happy, swaying from side to side (though sober) and singing in a language that he has "just invented." It is impossible not to conclude from this joyful epiphany (added to the earlier evidence) that the seduction has occurred.

The story requires this seduction so that the conclusion, presented as contrast, may be better appreciated. The young man spends the rest of the night reading a biography of Maupassant; he learns that the great writer died insane, from syphilis, at age forty-two, crawling on his hands and knees and "devouring his own excrement." The young writer looks out the window at the morning fog, perceiving that the world is hidden from him and realizing that there is much more for him to learn in life.