First published 1888
Pierre Roland watches his younger brother Jean inherit a fortune from their family friend Maréchal, and suspicion begins to poison his mind. The modest inheritance seems too generous for a mere friend, and Pierre finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew about his mother's past. As his doubts grow into obsession, Pierre torments himself and his family with accusations he cannot prove but cannot abandon. His mother Madame Roland suffers under his relentless scrutiny while his father remains oblivious to the growing tension. The family's comfortable bourgeois life in Le Havre crumbles as Pierre's jealousy and suspicion consume him. What begins as financial envy transforms into something far more destructive, forcing Pierre to confront painful truths about love, legitimacy, and the secrets families keep. Maupassant crafts an intimate portrait of a man destroyed by his own need to know, exploring how suspicion can poison even the strongest family bonds.
Genres: fiction, family, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Le Havre
Period: 19th-Century
176 pages · Paperback · Penguin Classics