Life. Mont-Oriol

The protagonist of the novel "Life", Jeanne, dreamed of happiness, and right after her marriage, as a romantic, passionate, dreamy girl, it seemed to her that she had found it. Alas, these illusions were very soon lost. Her husband had no intention of being 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 dispelled. Fate did not wish to be merciful to the heroine. But in the end, the author, as if out of pity, gives Jeanne a chance for happiness, for "life, whatever you say, 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, set in a fashionable spa resort. As in other famous works by 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, rightly entering the canon of classical works of critical realism literature; the novel is characterized by a sharp rejection of pragmatism, deceit, and hypocritical morality that leads to the trivialization of personality and the loss of spiritual integrity.