Guy de Maupassant is often called the master of erotic prose. But the novel “Bel Ami” (1885) goes beyond the scope of this genre. The history of the career of the ordinary seducer and playboy Georges Durois, developing in the spirit of an adventure novel, becomes a symbolic reflection of the spiritual impoverishment of the hero and society. Time passes, but readers are still interested in the image of a cynical adventurer and womanizer, a seducer of secular beauties who do not disdain anything to break out of poverty and obscurity in high society. Not possessing special talents, except the ability to seduce women, the hero manages, though not without difficulty, to achieve everything he wants.
