Bel Ami, or The History of a Scoundrel by MAUPASSANT, Guy de
by LibriVox
January 1, 1970 10:00 am
“He had faith in his good fortune, in that power of attraction which he felt within him – a power so irresistible that all women yielded to it.”
Though firmly set in 1880s Paris, Maupassant’s gripping story of an amoral journalist on the make could, with only slight modifications of detail, be updated to the 1960s, to the Reagan-Thatcher years, or maybe to the present day. Anti-hero Georges Duroy is a down-at-heel ex-soldier of no particular talent. Good-looking but somewhat lacking in self-confidence, he discovers an ability to control and exploit women – whereupon his career in journalism takes off, fuelled by the corruption of colleagues and government arrivistes. He may be a provincial Don Juan, but he is neither accident-prone nor heading for a fall…
A Hollywood screen adaptation is in preparation at the time of recording.
(Summary by Martin Geeson)
Recent Episodes
01 - Poverty
55 years ago02 - Madame Forestier
55 years ago03 - First Attempts
55 years ago04 - Duroy Learns Something
55 years ago05 - The First Intrigue, part one
55 years ago06 - The First Intrigue, part two
55 years ago07 - The First Intrigue, part three
55 years ago08 - A Step Upward, part one
55 years ago09 - A Step Upward, part two
55 years ago10 - A Duel with an End
55 years ago