de Maupassant One-A-Week

gonna read a story a week. every wed. until I forget. you can join me if you like! his stories are good for your digestion.

"As usual, it was only the first step that cost. This Rubicon once crossed, they set to work with a will. The basket was emptied. It still contained a pate de foie gras, a lark pie, a piece of smoked tongue, Crassane pears, Pont-Leveque gingerbread, fancy cakes, and a cup full of pickled gherkins and onions—Boule de Suif, like all women, being very fond of indigestible things."

starting with Boule De Suif naturally.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3090/3090-h/3090-h.htm#2H_4_0003

loved this guy in high school. Are there good new translations?

that's a good question! the Gutenberg texts are not what you are seeking. but they'll do in a pinch.

my kinda guy:

"When he drank, his great beard, which matched the color of his favorite beverage, seemed to tremble with affection; his eyes positively squinted in the endeavor not to lose sight of the beloved glass, and he looked for all the world as if he were fulfilling the only function for which he was born. He seemed to have established in his mind an affinity between the two great passions of his life—pale ale and revolution—and assuredly he could not taste the one without dreaming of the other."

Where’s good to start with de M? Any translator recommendations?

the ones we read at sixth form were unlabelled, so no idea where they were from, but there seem to be a couple of new translated collections out there. the ones that stick with me are the late ones where he seems to be essentially transcribing his syphilitic hallucinations, all death, horror, sex, prostitution. boule de suif is an obvious classic and maybe a good place to start, "The necklace" might be his most famous but it's kind of a trifle and not at all representative.