Guy de Maupassant by Isaac Babel. Short summary

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A poor student had the good fortune to work on translations of a new edition of Maupassant’s works. He edited texts written by the juror’s wife. Very soon this collaboration grew into a novel.

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In 1916, the narrator moved to St. Petersburg. The student was sheltered by his teacher Alexei Kazantsev. They lived on a starvation diet. Sometimes they moonlighted by writing notes about incidents.

Attorney Bendersky had the idea to publish a new edition of the works of Maupassant. His wife Raisa did the translations. Bendersky was looking for an assistant for her. Kazantsev advised the solicitor to Babel.

The young man went to Bendersky the very next day. Raisa assured him that Maupassant was the only passion of her life. However, after reading one of the woman’s works, the narrator realized that «in her translation there was not a trace of Maupassant’s phrase.

The edits made by the narrator appealed to Raisa Mikhailovna. They began to translate «The Idyll» together. Babel left with twenty-five rubles in advance.

Since then, the young man had breakfast at the Bendersky’s every morning. Soon the fascination with the works of the French writer turned into a romance between the narrator and Raisa Mikhailovna.