‘The Horla’ by Guy de Maupassant is one of my favourite short stories of all time.
So here’s my brand of analysis. We take a short story – sometimes a poem or a play or a philosophical tract – and we make the poetic eminently practical. We suck the marrow out of the work. We converse with authors long dead as though they’re living. We learn and relish and love. Together.
No spoilers in this video, by the way. So feel free to watch it before or after reading. And please let me know your thoughts on this delightful, ghastly, haunting, yet beautiful short story.
Analysing ‘The Horla’ by Guy de Maupassant
My recommended edition of Guy de Maupassant:
A prize in the form of that volume to anyone who can compellingly provide a better line from ‘The Horla’ than this one:
When we are alone for any length of time we people the void with phantoms.
Quand nous sommes seuls longtemps, nous peuplons le vide de fantômes.