Biography on Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant was born on August 5, 1850 at Chateau de Miromesnil in
France. He was a descendent of a very old French family. As a boy, Maupassant
went to school at Yvetot in Normandy, and then attended Lycee at Rouen. During
his childhood and youth in Normandy, he picked up a great deal of experiences
that he later put to use in many of his writings. When Maupassant was eleven
years old, his parents got separated. This was probably the most significant
events in his life in that his mother retained custody of him. His mother was
the sister of a close friend of Flaubert, one of the most famous nineteenth-
century writers. She turned to Flaubert for advice on him. Flaubert began
tutoring him on various subjects, mainly writing. Maupassant's association with
Flaubert brought him into the French literary circles. Even though Maupassant
was often a member of gatherings which included such famous writers such as
Flaubert, Turgenev, Zola, and Daudet, he had little interest at the time for a
career of writing for himself. As an adolescent he was much more interested in
sports than writing, especially rowing.