The heroine of the novel "Life," Jeanne, dreamed of happiness, and right after her marriage, it seemed to her, a romantic, fiery, dreamy girl, that she had found it. Alas, these illusions were soon lost. Her husband did not intend to remain faithful to her, and only motherhood stopped her from deciding to end the marriage. Jeanne reconciled herself to being an unhappy wife but passionately dreamed of being a happy mother. Unfortunately, these hopes were also soon shattered. Fate did not wish to be kind to the heroine. But in the end, the author, as if taking pity, gives Jeanne a chance for happiness, for "life, whether you like it or not, is not so good, but not so bad, as people think." The novel, after which Turgenev called Maupassant "undoubtedly the most talented of all contemporary French writers." The basis of the novel "Mont-Oriol" is a love story between Christiane Andermatt and Paul Bretigny, the setting being a fashionable spa resort. As in other famous works of the author, the romantic relationships of the characters are closely intertwined with business, with the desire to get rich at any cost. Essentially, this is a social and satirical novel, rightfully belonging to the canon of classic works of critical realism literature; the novel sharply rejects pragmatism, falsehood, and hypocritical morality, which lead to the degradation of the personality and the loss of spiritual integrity.
