SOURCE: "Maupassant's Journalism: The Conservative Anarchist," in Maupassant in the Hall of Mirrors: Ironies of Repetition in the Work of Guy de Maupassant, St. Martin's Press, 1990, pp. 25–36.

In the following essay, Harris focuses on Maupassant's journalistic writings, pointing out how understanding Maupassant's nostalgia for the past (including his elitism and nationalism) and his perceptions of scientific progress is essential in evaluating his narrative technique.

In 'Adieu mystères', an article published in 1881, Maupassant argues that poetry draws its power from the unknown. Comparing the latter to 'une épaisse et redoutée forêt', Maupassant implores would-be poets to work quickly, since, 'Ô poètes, vous n'avez plus qu'un coin de forêt où nous conduire'.¹ This race against time is prompted by the advance of modern science, which drives the unknown before it. In an intriguing inversion of Herbert Spencer's famous image, Maupassant implies that human contact with...