"Pierrot" is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

by French writer

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the naturalist school, depicting human lives, destinies and s ...

. It was originally published on 1 October 1882 in the French newspaper ''

Le Gaulois () was a French daily newspaper, founded in 1868 by Edmond Tarbé and Henry de Pène. After a printing stoppage, it was revived by Arthur Meyer in 1882 with notable collaborators Paul Bourget, Alfred Grévin, Abel Hermant, and Ernest Dau ...

''. A year later, in 1883, it appeared in the short story collection ''

Contes de la bécasse Contes may refer to: * Contes, Alpes-Maritimes, a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in France * Contes, Pas-de-Calais, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in France See also * Conte (disambiguation) {{geodis ...

''. The story was dedicated to

Henry Roujon Henry Roujon (; 1 September 1853, Paris – 1 June 1914, Paris) was a French academic, essayist and novelist. Roujon was the secretary of Jules Ferry, and became director of Fine Arts in 1894. Later he was named secretary for life of the Aca ...

, novelist and public servant.Volume ''Maupassant, contes et nouvelles'', p. 1465, ''

Bibliothèque de la Pléiade The ''Bibliothèque de la Pléiade'' (, "Pleiades Library") is a French editorial collection which was created in 1931 by Jacques Schiffrin, an independent young editor. Schiffrin wanted to provide the public with reference editions of the ...

Plot

Ms. Lefevre, a rich, miserly widow has a dozen

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

s stolen from her garden. Following the advice of a neighbor, she decides to buy a small dog. The baker brings her a dog named Pierrot. He would always bark because he is hungry. He isn't even scaring the thief away. She refuses to pay eight francs for the animal and decides to throw Pierrot into a

Denehole A denehole (alternatively dene hole or dene-hole) is an underground structure consisting of a number of small chalk caves entered by a vertical shaft. The name is given to certain caves or excavations in England, which have been popularly suppos ...

, which is a well in which all dogs from the area end up. They slowly starve to death and eat those that have already died. She throws Pierrot in the well, but when she hears the barking of the dog, it tears her heart. The following nights she sees Pierrot in her dreams, but she keeps refusing to pay the tax. To appease her guilty conscience, she goes every day beside the hole to throw Pierrot some bread. Then she hears a second dog in the well. She refuses to feed another dog because it was bigger and stronger. She leaves Pierrot to die.

Editions

* ''Pierrot'', Maupassant, Contes et nouvelles. Texte établi et annoté par Louis Forestier,

, éditions Gallimard, 1974

References

External links

* {{Guy de Maupassant 1882 short stories Short stories by Guy de Maupassant Works originally published in Le Gaulois