GUY DE MAUPASSANT
             HE WAS ONE OF THE BEST KNOWN AND BELOVED WRITERS IN 19TH CENTURY FRANCE. HE IS KNOWN AS THE ALL-TIME MASTER OF THE SLICE OF LIFE SHORT STORY. IN HIS SHORT LIFE HE KNEW GREAT FAME AND FORTUNE, EVEN AS HIS INNER DEMONS BROUGHT HIM UNTIMELY DEATH. HIS NAME WAS GUY DE MAUPASSANT.
             MAUPASSANTS SPARE IRONIC STYLE WAS PERFECT FOR DESCRIBING THE REALITIES OF WAR AND THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE IN NORMANDY. HIS SUBJECTS SPANNED THE SOCIAL CLASSES. HIS CHOICE OF CHARACTERS RANGED FROM THE HIGHEST NOBLES TO THE LOWEST STREET PROSTITUTES. THE GREAT FRENCH NOVELIST GUSTAVE FLAUBERT HELPED HIM SEE HIS LITERARY POTENTIAL. THE WOMEN OF FRANCE HELPED HIM WITH EVERYTHING ELSE. BY THE TIME HE WAS IN HIS EARLY TWENTY'S THEY'D ALSO GIVIN HIM SYPHILIS. WHEN MEDICINE CURED THE SORES MAUPASSANT THOUGHT HE WAS HOME FREE, BUT IN REALITY THE DISEASE HEADED FOR HIS BRAIN.
             BORN NEAR DIEPPE IN 1850, MAUPASSANT HAD BEEN BROUGHT TO HIS SINGLE PROMISCUOUS LIFE BY FIGHTING PARENTS. GUY SIDED WITH HIS MOTHER. BUT HIS FICTION WAS ABOUT WEAK HUSBANDS AND THE LONELINESS OF FATHERLESS SONS. AS HIS ILLNESS REAWAKENED IN HIS BRAIN, HIS REALITY ALTERED. MANY OF HIS STORIES BEGAN TO REFLECT THE WRITERS OWN FEARS AND INSECURITIES. TALES FEATURING MADNESS AND HALLUCINATIONS BECAME MAUPASSANTS SKILL. IN ONE STORY, LE HORLA, MAUPASSANT CREATED A FICTIONAL ACCOUNT OF A BELIEF THAT HAUNTED HIM IN REAL LIFE. THE IDEA OF THE INVISIBLE DOUBLE, ONE WHO TAKES CONTROL OVER THE CHARACTERS LIFE. NO MATTER HOW HARD THE MAIN CHARACTER OF LA HORLA TRIES, HE CAN'T ESCAPE HIS EVIL DOUBLE ANY MORE THAN HE CAN ESCAPE HIMSELF. SEX HELPED HIM FORGET HIS DEMONS. SO DID THE DRUG ETHER.
             HE BEGAN SUFFERING DEEP CHILLS, AND BECAME TERRIBLY SENSITIVE TO NOISE AND LIGHT.UNWILLING TO ACKNOWLEDGE HIS INSANITY, MAUPASSANT FOUND AN EXPLANATION: "IT COMES FROM A SOFTENING OF THE BRAIN BROUGHT ON BY BATHING MY NOSTRILS WITH SALT WATER. THE SAL...