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The Necklace

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THE NECKLACE She had a rich friend, a former schoolmate

Short story by Guy de Maupassant at the convent, whom she no longer wanted
to visit because she suffered so much when
She was one of those pretty and charming she came home. For whole days afterwards
girls born, as if by an error of fate, into a famiy she would weep with sorrow, regret, despair
of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, and misery.
no means of becoming known, understood, *
loved or wedded by a man of wealth and One evening her husband came home
distinction; and so she let herself be married to with an air of triumph, holding a large
a minor official at the Ministry of Education. envelope in his hand. "Look," he said,
"here's something for you."
She dressed plainly because she had never
been able to afford anything better, but she She tore open the paper and drew out a card, on
was as unhappy as if she had once been which was printed the words:
wealthy. Women don't belong to a caste or
class; their beauty, grace, and natural charm "The Minister of Education and Mme. Georges
take the place of birth and family. Natural Rampouneau request the pleasure of M. and Mme.
delicacy, instinctive elegance and a quick wit Loisel's company at the Ministry, on the evening of
determine their place in society, and make Monday January 18th."
the daughters of commoners the equals of
the very finest ladies. Instead of being delighted, as her husband
had hoped, she threw the invitation on the
She suffered endlessly, feeling she was table resentfully, and muttered:
entitled to all the delicacies and luxuries of
life. She suffered because of the poorness of "What do you want me to do with that?"
her house as she looked at the dirty walls,
the worn-out chairs and the ugly curtains. All "But, my dear, I thought you would be
these things that another woman of her class pleased. You never go out, and it will be such
would not even have noticed, tormented her a lovely occasion! I had awful trouble getting
and made her resentful. The sight of the little it. Everyone wants to go; it is very exclusive,
Brenton girl who did her housework filled her and they're not giving many invitations to
with terrible regrets and hopeless fantasies. clerks. The whole ministry will be there."
She dreamed of silent antechambers hung
with Oriental tapestries, lit from above by She stared at him angrily, and
torches in bronze holders, while two tall said, impatiently:
footmen in knee-length breeches napped in
huge armchairs, sleepy from the stove's "And what do you expect me to
oppressive warmth. She dreamed of vast wear if I go?" He hadn't thought
living rooms furnished in rare old silks, of that. He stammered:
elegant furniture loaded with priceless
ornaments, and inviting smaller rooms, "Why, the dress you go to the
perfumed, made for afternoon chats with theatre in. It seems very nice to
close friends - famous, sought after men, me ..."
who all women envy and desire.
He stopped, stunned, distressed to see his
When she sat down to dinner at a round table wife crying. Two large tears ran slowly from
covered with a three-day-old cloth opposite her the corners of her eyes towards the corners
husband who, lifting the lid off the soup, of her mouth. He stuttered:
shouted excitedly, "Ah! Beef stew! What could < 3 >
be better," she dreamed of fine dinners, of "What's the matter? What's the matter?"
shining silverware, of tapestries which peopled
the walls with figures from another time and With great effort she overcame her grief and
replied in a calm voice, as she wiped her wet
strange birds in fairy forests; she dreamed of
cheeks:
delicious dishes served on wonderful plates, of
whispered gallantries listened to with an
"Nothing. Only I have no dress and so I
inscrutable smile as one ate the pink flesh of a
can't go to this party.Give your invitation to a
trout or the wings of a quail.
< 2 > friend whose wife has better clothes than I
do." He was distraught, but tried again:
She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing; and
these were the only things she loved. She felt
"Let's see, Mathilde. How much would a
she was made for them alone. She wanted so
much to charm, to be envied, to be desired suitable dress cost, one which you could use
and sought after. again on other occasions, something very
simple?"
She thought for a moment, computing the First she saw some bracelets, then a pearl
cost, and also wondering what amount she necklace, then a gold Venetian cross set with
could ask for without an immediate refusal precious stones, of exquisite craftsmanship.
and an alarmed exclamation from the thrifty She tried on the jewelry in the mirror,
clerk. hesitated, could not bear to part with them,
to give them back. She kept asking:
At last she answered hesitantly:
"You have nothing else?"
"I don't know exactly, but I think I could do it with
four hundred francs." "Why, yes. But I don't know what you like."

He turned a little pale, because he had been Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin
saving that exact amount to buy a gun and box, a superb diamond necklace, and her
treat himself to a hunting trip the following heart began to beat with uncontrolled
summer, in the country near Nanterre, with a desire. Her hands trembled as she took it.
few friends who went lark- shooting there on She fastened it around her neck, over her
Sundays. high-necked dress, and stood lost in
ecstasy as she looked at herself.
However, he said:
Then she asked anxiously, hesitating:
"Very well, I can give you four hundred francs. But try
and get a really beautiful dress." "Would you lend me this, just this?"
*
The day of the party drew near, and Madame "Why, yes, of course."
Loisel seemed sad, restless, anxious. Her
dress was ready, however. One evening her She threw her arms around her friend's neck,
husband said to her: embraced her rapturously, then fled with her treasure.
*
"What's the matter? You've been acting strange these The day of the party arrived. Madame Loisel
last three days." was a success. She was prettier than all the
other women, elegant, gracious, smiling, and
She replied: "I'm upset that I have no full of joy. All the men stared at her, asked
jewels, not a single stone to wear. I will look her name, tried to be introduced. All the
cheap. I would almost rather not go to the cabinet officials wanted to waltz with her. The
party." minister noticed her.
< 5 >
"You could wear flowers, " he said, "They are She danced wildly, with passion, drunk on
very fashionable at this time of year. For ten pleasure, forgetting everything in the triumph
francs you could get two or three magnificent of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a
roses." sort of cloud of happiness, made up of all this
respect, all this admiration, all these
She was not convinced. awakened desires, of that sense of triumph
< 4 > that is so sweet to a woman's heart.
"No; there is nothing more humiliating
than looking poor in the middle of a lot of She left at about four o'clock in the morning.
rich women." Her husband had been dozing since midnight
in a little deserted anteroom with three other
"How stupid you are!" her husband cried. gentlemen whose wives were having a good
"Go and see your friend Madame Forestier time.
and ask her to lend you some jewels. You
know her well enough for that." She He threw over her shoulders the clothes he
uttered a cry of joy. had brought for her to go outside in, the
modest clothes of an ordinary life, whose
"Of course. I had not thought of that." poverty contrasted sharply with the elegance
of the ball dress. She felt this and wanted to
The next day she went to her friend's house and told run away, so she wouldn't be noticed by the
her of her distress. other women who were wrapping themselves
in expensive furs.
Madame Forestier went to her mirrored
wardrobe, took out a large box, brought it Loisel held her back.
back, opened it, and said to Madame Loisel:
"Wait a moment, you'll catch a cold outside. I'll go and
"Choose, my dear." find a cab."
But she would not listen to him, and ran Her husband returned at about seven o'clock.
down the stairs. When they were finally in the He had found nothing.
street, they could not find a cab, and began to
look for one, shouting at the cabmen they He went to the police, to the newspapers to offer a
saw passing in the distance. reward, to the cab companies, everywhere the tiniest
glimmer of hope led him.
They walked down toward the Seine in despair,
shivering with cold. At last they found on the quay one She waited all day, in the same state of blank despair
of those old night cabs that one sees in Paris only after from before this frightful disaster.
dark, as if they were ashamed to show their
shabbiness during the day. Loisel returned in the evening, a hollow, pale figure;
he had found nothing.
They were dropped off at their door in the Rue des
Martyrs, and sadly walked up the steps to their "You must write to your friend," he said, "tell her you
apartment. It was all over, for her. And he was have broken the clasp of her necklace and that you are
remembering that he had to be back at his office at having it mended. It will give us time to look some
ten o'clock. more."
<7>
In front of the mirror, she took off the clothes around She wrote as he dictated.
her shoulders, taking a final look at herself in all her *
glory. But suddenly she uttered a cry. She no longer At the end of one week they had lost all hope.
had the necklace round her neck!
<6> And Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:
"What is the matter?" asked her husband, already
half undressed. "We must consider how to replace the jewel."

She turned towards him, panic-stricken. The next day they took the box which had held it,
and went to the jeweler whose name they found
"I have ... I have ... I no longer have Madame inside. He consulted his books.
Forestier's necklace."
"It was not I, madame, who sold the necklace; I
He stood up, distraught. must simply have supplied the case."

"What! ... how! ... That's impossible!" And so they went from jeweler to jeweler, looking for
an necklace like the other one, consulting their
They looked in the folds of her dress, in the folds of memories, both sick with grief and anguish.
her cloak, in her pockets, everywhere. But they could
not find it. In a shop at the Palais Royal, they found a string of
diamonds which seemed to be exactly what they were
"Are you sure you still had it on when you left the looking for. It was worth forty thousand francs. They
ball?" he asked. could have it for thirty-six thousand.

"Yes. I touched it in the hall at the Ministry." So they begged the jeweler not to sell it for three
days. And they made an arrangement that he would
"But if you had lost it in the street we would have take it back for thirty-four thousand francs if the other
heard it fall. It must be in the cab." necklace was found before the end of February.

"Yes. That's probably it. Did you take his number?” Loisel had eighteen thousand francs which his father
had left him. He would borrow the rest.
"No. And you, didn't you notice it?"
And he did borrow, asking for a thousand francs from
"No." one man, five hundred from another, five louis here,
three louis there. He gave notes, made ruinous
They stared at each other, stunned. At last Loisel put agreements, dealt with usurers, with every type of
his clothes on again. money-lender. He compromised the rest of his life,
risked signing notes without knowing if he could ever
"I'm going back," he said, "over the whole route we honor them, and, terrified by the anguish still to come,
walked, see if I can find it." by the black misery about to fall on him, by the
prospect of every physical privation and every moral
He left. She remained in her ball dress all evening, torture he was about to suffer, he went to get the new
without the strength to go to bed, sitting on a chair, necklace, and laid down on the jeweler's counter
with no fire, her mind blank. thirty-six thousand francs.
When Madame Loisel took the necklace back, Madame Loisel felt emotional. Should she
Madame Forestier said coldly: speak to her? Yes, of course. And now that she
had paid, she would tell her all. Why not?
"You should have returned it sooner, I might have
needed it." She went up to her.
<8>
To the relief of her friend, she did not open the case. "Good morning, Jeanne."
If she had detected the substitution, what would she
have thought? What would she have said? Would she The other, astonished to be addressed so familiarly
have taken her friend for a thief? by this common woman, did not recognize her. She
* stammered:
From then on, Madame Loisel knew the horrible life of
the very poor. But she played her part heroically. The "But - madame - I don't know. You must have made
dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it. They a mistake."
dismissed their maid; they changed their lodgings;
they rented a garret under the roof. "No, I am Mathilde Loisel."

She came to know the drudgery of housework, the Her friend uttered a cry.
odious labors of the kitchen. She washed the dishes,
staining her rosy nails on greasy pots and the bottoms "Oh! ... my poor Mathilde, how you've changed! ..."
of pans. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts and the
dishcloths, which she hung to dry on a line; she carried "Yes, I have had some hard times since I last saw
the garbage down to the street every morning, and you, and many miseries ... and all because of you! ..."
carried up the water, stopping at each landing to catch
her breath. And, dressed like a commoner, she went to "Me? How can that be?"
the fruiterer's, the grocer's, the butcher's, her basket
on her arm, bargaining, insulted, fighting over every "You remember that diamond necklace that you lent
miserable sou. me to wear to the Ministry party?"

Each month they had to pay some notes, renew "Yes. Well?"
others, get more time.
"Well, I lost it."
Her husband worked every evening, doing accounts
for a tradesman, and often, late into the night, he sat "What do you mean? You brought it back."
copying a manuscript at five sous a page.
"I brought you back another exactly like it. And it has
And this life lasted ten years. taken us ten years to pay for it. It wasn't easy for us,
we had very little. But at last it is over, and I am very
At the end of ten years they had paid off everything, glad."
everything, at usurer's rates and with the
accumulations of compound interest. Madame Forestier was stunned.

Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become "You say that you bought a diamond necklace to
strong, hard and rough like all women of impoverished replace mine?"
households. With hair half combed, with skirts awry,
and reddened hands, she talked loudly as she washed "Yes; you didn't notice then? They were very similar."
the floor with great swishes of water. But sometimes,
when her husband was at the office, she sat down near And she smiled with proud and innocent pleasure.
the window and thought of that evening at the ball so
long ago, when she had been so beautiful and so Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took both her
admired. hands.
< 10 >
What would have happened if she had not lost that "Oh, my poor Mathilde! Mine was an imitation! It was
necklace? Who knows, who knows? How strange life is, worth five hundred francs at most! ...
how fickle! How little is needed for one to be ruined or
saved!
<9>
*
One Sunday, as she was walking in the Champs
Élysées to refresh herself after the week's work,
suddenly she saw a woman walking with a child. It was
Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still
charming.

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