Bel Ami

The relations with the press of Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) served him as experience for the plot for "Bel Ami", published in 1885 and provoking an intense public controversy. Although the story focuses on the rapid social rise of the journalist George Duroy, of humble origin and mediocre education, after having spent a few years as a noncommissioned officer in North Africa, the novel is not limited, however, to chronicle the triumph of a anti-hero, scheming and unscrupulous, who supports his ambitions on his seductive skills. Hypocrisy and corruption during the Third Republic, French colonial politics, the formation of a ruling class based on financial speculation and the murky relations of the press with pressure groups are some of the threads that weave the plot of this novel.