Dear Friend

«Love is the only joy in life, but we often ruin it by making too many demands...»

However, Georges Duroy — the main character of the novel «Dear Friend» by Guy de Maupassant — has a completely different view on some sort of romance: for him, love is of course not a real feeling, just its imitation — a mere payment for the material embodiment of those very «big demands». A former military man and shameless journalist, using deception, alluring appearance and the connections of his married lovers, quickly achieves success in high society, which is as «dear» as he is... An ambitious gigolo, a soulless cynic who is used to receiving earthly pleasures from women's hands, became one of the symbols of his time and immortalized his author's name in the history of world culture.

Guy de Maupassant subtly and virtuously captured the emotional, social, and natural vibrations, exploring the properties of passion. Maupassant's heroes existed between light and shadow, sincerity and hypocrisy, their lives became a payment for a moment of happiness or for a dream of it.