Short Fiction · Chapter
Artfulness explained
The Count of L—— recounts his three-year affair with a clever bourgeoise who fabricated a pregnancy, a child, and a journey to Italy to maintain his interest.
What happens
The Count of L—— recounts his three-year affair with a clever bourgeoise who fabricated a pregnancy, a child, and a journey to Italy to maintain his interest. When his brother investigates and exposes the deception, she calmly accepts the end of the affair, revealing she borrowed her sister's child and invented the letters, explaining that such artifice was necessary to keep a man of his station.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Desire
The Count's desire for the woman is sustained by her artful deception, highlighting how love and desire can be manipulated.
Gender and Power
The woman uses her wits and feminine charm to exert power over the Count, subverting traditional gender roles through manipulation.
Illusion vs. Reality
The entire affair is built on a web of lies—the fabricated pregnancy, child, and journey—contrasting the illusion she creates with the reality of her ordinary life.
Characters to notice
- Count of L——
The narrator and ex-minister who recounts being deceived by his mistress.
- Madame D.
The clever bourgeoise who fabricates a pregnancy, a child, and a journey to Italy to maintain the Count's interest.
- Guy de Maupassant
Author of the story, though not directly present in the narrative.
Key passages
“They cheat with incredible simplicity, amazing audacity, and invincible cunning. They cheat from morning to night, every one of them, the best of them, the most straightforward, the most sensible.”
Women deceive with remarkable ease, boldness, and cleverness, constantly and universally, even the most honest and sensible among them.
The Count's cynical generalization about women's deceitfulness sets the tone for his story.
“I was victimised by an ordinary little bourgeoise in a most brazen and amusing manner. I will tell you about it that you may profit thereby.”
I was tricked by a common middle-class woman in a shameless and entertaining way, and I'll share the story so you can learn from it.
The Count introduces his tale as both a cautionary and entertaining anecdote.
“Do you think a poor little insignificant bourgeoise like me could have kept the Count of L——, a minister, a great nobleman, a popular man in society, wealthy and attractive, for three years if she had not given him something to think about?”
Do you believe a humble, unimportant middle-class woman like me could have held the attention of a wealthy, noble, and popular minister for three years without creating some intrigue?
The woman justifies her deception as necessary to maintain the Count's interest, revealing her pragmatic view of their relationship.