SOURCE: Killick, Rachel. “Family Likeness in Flaubert and Maupassant: ‘La Legende de Saint Julien L'Hospitalier’ and ‘Le Donneur d'Eau Benite.’” Forum for Modern Language Studies 24, no. 4 (October 1988): 346-58.

In the following essay, Killick considers the influence of Gustave Flaubert on Guy de Maupassant through a comparison of two stories that share similar elements of plot and theme.

Flaubert's role as the young Maupassant's literary mentor is a well-established fact, attested by the 1870s correspondence and Flaubert's annotations of Maupassant's early work, particularly his verse. After 1880 Maupassant's articles on Flaubert and the Flaubertian tonality of his remarks on art and the novel demonstrate the permanence of that influence. In contrast, however, to the thorough critical documenting of these links, relatively little attention has been paid to any direct formative effect of Flaubert's fiction on that of Maupassant. No account has thus been taken of the striking relationship of resemblance...