Books published by Duchy of Lambeth

In July 1881, having established himself as a writer of great pedigree and potential and at the beginning of a ten-year period that would see him become one of the most popular authors of his age, Maupassant embarked on a dangerous journey to the troubled colony of Algeria, believed to be on the verge of an Arab insurrection. In To the Sun Maupassant describes a land and populace vanquished by the twin powers of the sun and French colonialism, he bows down before the former, finding a personal absolution in the light, heat and space of the desert. But he stands up to the latter, pointing out the faults and absurdities of French colonialism, all the while demonstrating his brilliance as a political reporter who came to understand Algeria and its problems in such a short space of time. This is the first complete English translation of Maupassant's travel book Au soleil (1884), including the three Fragments 'At the Spas'; 'In Brittany'; and 'Le Creusot', as well as full critical apparatus.

In The Foreign Soul we are in classic Maupassant territory. Robert Mariolle, a wealthy Parisian bachelor, has just arrived in the fashionable spa town of Aix-les-Bains determined to enjoy himself at the casino in the company of high society, attempting to get over his break up with mistress, Henriette Lambel. The Angelus was intended to be Maupassant's great masterpiece, an ambitious inverted allegory of Christianity into which the author would pour his growing pessimism and despair. Set during the Franco-Prussian War, as were some of Maupassant's finest short stories, The Angelus finds the pregnant Countess de Brémontal alone in her château as Prussian troops move into the neighbourhood. Here are the first English translations of Maupassant's two unfinished novels, The Foreign Soul [L'Ame étrangère] and The Angelus [L'Angélus], together with full critical apparatus, including secondary sources outlining Maupassant's future plot ideas and an essay on The Foreign Soul by Paul Bourget.