Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.Guy de Maupassant is one of the few writers whose short stories—witty, economical, elegant, yet straightforward in style—are so forceful that his literary reputation can rest on them alone. Beneath their deceptively simple surfaces lies a deep understanding of the complexities of the human psyche. Maupassant explores the full panoply of late-nineteenth-century French society, from prostitutes in Parisian brothels and peasants in rural cottages, to adulterousaristocrats at expensive spas and patrician parties.This collection begins with “Ball-of-Fat,” the first story Maupassant published under his own name. Called a masterpiece by his friend and mentor Gustave Flaubert, it instantly raised the young author to celebrity status and created a clamor for more of his work. He responded with over three hundred stories (and six novels) written in a dozen years. Among others included here are the favorites “The Necklace,” “The Horla,” “The False Gems,” and “Useless Beauty.”Richard Fusco received his Ph.D. from Duke University and is Associate Professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. A specialist in nineteenth-century American literature and in short-story narrative theory, his published criticism includes Maupassant and the American Short Story: The Influence of Form at the Turn of the Century and Fin de millénaire: Poe’s Legacy for the Detective Story.

    He tells of Indians and Indian fighters, buffalo hunts, bad men, wolves, wild horses, tough hotels, drinking customs, and hard-riding cowboys. . . . [He] lived long enough in the West to acquire a vast amount of information and lore, and he has left enough from his brush to prove his place as a sound interpreter of a stirring period and a fascinating country."-New York Times Brian W. Dippie is a professor of history at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and the author of Catlin and His Contemporaries: The Politics of Patronage (Nebraska 1990).

    Contents Include - Foreword - Diary - July 11, 1871, to July 17, 1871 - Preface - Text - Appendix - Index - "The Daily Impressions Received during the Campaign of 1870, 1871 and only Cursorily Jotted down in my Diary under Stress of Military Duties I have Supplemented and Completed since my Subsequent return Home by Extracts from the Correspondence Regularly Maintained between my Wife and Myself. On Principle, however, I was Firmly Resolved to Set down only my Actual, Personal Experiences and Feelings from Day to Day; Consequently no Improvement or Alteration has been made under the Influence of Later Events. Thus my Diary is a Contribution to the History of that Great and Memorable War, Containing also much Information, Hardly to be found elsewhere, Throwing Light on the Events of which the outside World takes a View Differing Widely from the Reality. Similarly, the Character of Prominent Personages will often wear another aspect than that in which the Present Age and History represent it. But Revelations of this kind are not for Contemporaries to know; I therefore direct that no one else but my Wife and my Grown-up Children is to examine my Diary till the year 1922 is ended. After that there is nothing to Hinder its Publication." Illustrated with photographs. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.