The
Necklace o The Diamond
Necklace es un cuento del escritor francés Guy de Maupassant, de 1884. Fue publicado en 1884 en el periódico Le Gaulois y tiene un final inesperado. Para
saber: boudoir, soup-tureen, pot-au-feu…
SHE was one of those pretty and
charming girls who are sometimes, as if by a mistake of destiny, born in a
family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known,
understood, loved, wedded, by any rich and distinguished man; and she let
herself be married to a little clerk at the Ministry of Public Instruction.
She dressed plainly because she
could not dress well, but she was as unhappy as though she had really fallen
from her proper station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank; and
beauty, grace, and charm act instead of family and birth. Natural fineness,
instinct for what is elegant, suppleness of wit, are the sole hierarchy, and
make from women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.
She suffered ceaselessly, feeling
herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She suffered from the
poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out
chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another
woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made
her angry. The sight of the little Breton peasant who did her humble housework
aroused in her regrets which were despairing, and distracted dreams. She
thought of the silent ante-chambers hung with Oriental tapestry, lit by tall
bronze candelabra, and of the two great footmen in knee-breeches who sleep in
the big arm-chairs, made drowsy by the heavy warmth of the hot-air stove. She
thought of the long salons fitted up with ancient silk, of the delicate
furniture carrying priceless curiosities, and of the coquettish perfumed boudoirs made for talks at five o'clock
with intimate friends, with men famous and sought after, whom all women envy
and whose attention they all desire.
When she sat down to dinner, before
the round table covered with a table-cloth three days old, opposite her
husband, who uncovered the bowl and
declared with an enchanted air, "Ah, the good stew!
I don't know anything better than that," she thought of elegant dinners, of
shining silverware, of tapestry which peopled the walls with ancient personages
and with strange birds flying in the midst of a fairy forest; and she thought
of delicious dishes served on marvellous plates, and of the whispered
gallantries which you listen to with a sphinx-like smile, while you are eating
the pink flesh of a trout or the wings of a quail.
She had no dresses, no jewels,
nothing. And she loved nothing but that; she felt made for that. She would so
have liked to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after.
She had a friend, a former
schoolmate at the convent, who was rich, and whom she did not like to go and
see any more, because she suffered so much when she came back.
But, one evening, her husband
returned home with a triumphant air, and holding a large envelope in his hand.
"There," said he,
"here is something for you."
She tore the paper sharply, and drew
out a printed card which bore these words:
"The Minister of Public
Instruction and Mme. Georges Ramponneau request the honor of M. and Mme.
Loisel's company at the palace of the Ministry on Monday evening, January
18th."
Instead of being delighted, as her
husband hoped, she threw the invitation on the table with disdain, murmuring:
"What do you want me to do with
that?"
"But, my dear, I thought you
would be glad. You never go out, and this is such a fine opportunity. I had
awful trouble to get it. Everyone wants to go; it is very select, and they are
not giving many invitations to clerks. The whole official world will be
there."… (The Necklace,
by Guy de Maupassant)
Leélo
hasta el final, el autor te cuenta el desenlace en la última oración.
¡Increíble!
Boudoir of Marie Antoniette, 1786 |
Para saber
Boudoir es el salón
o dormitorio privado de una dama. Formaba parte de los dormitorios de una dama
para bañarse y vestirse, adyacentes al dormitorio principal. También se usó
para coser o pasar el tiempo con el enamorado.
Vocabulario reemplazado
soup-tureen pot-au-feu dainty
Artículos
relacionados
De la web
The
Necklace, by Guy
de Maupassant (Summary and Review) - Minute Book Report
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