Guy de Maupassant and Hermine du Nui: the heartbreaking love of a great heartthrob

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Guy de Maupassant, a classic of the French short story. It seems that nothing was impossible in his life. He always got what he wanted. Charming, possessing sparkling humor, who knew the wisdom of life through his own experience, he had everything he dreamed of in his youth. He had money, women and fame. And yet, the unconquered peak of love remained in his fate - the heart of Hermine Lecomte du Nui.

Writer, ladies' man and heartbreaker

By the age of 33, Maupassant was already widely known not only in literary circles. Even then, the author of stunningly capacious short stories found the glory of a womanizer and tempter of women. He reacted quite unbridledly to the appearance of a female person in his field of vision. She chanted, admired, flirted and seduced. And his efforts did not go unnoticed - he almost never received a rejection.

Women worshiped him and forgot about their morals and principles in order to get a few minutes or hours of attention from the fickle Maupassant.

He willingly allowed himself to have another affair with a young charming woman or a respectable lady, and then easily and without regret left his next admirer to set off again in search of his distant stranger. Guy collected women, then describing these novels in his works. Each mistress of the great Frenchman could recognize herself in his heroines and remember all the details of her meetings with the charming writer.

Fatal meeting

Sometimes, tired of attention and an endless series of events, Guy visited his parent's estate in the quiet French village of Etretat on the seashore. Here his fateful meeting with an extraordinary woman took place. A delicate and fragile beauty with golden silk curls and stunningly bright lively eyes could not remain unnoticed by Maupassant.

Ermina Lecomte du Nui, wife of the court architect, lived next door in the name of La Bicoc with her young son Pierre. Her loneliness was decorated with writing, with which she entertained herself while her beloved husband Andre was in Romania. He rarely pampered his wife with his presence. Ermina passionately loved her husband and was charming in her purity of actions and thoughts.

Noticing the charm of the master of the word after the first acquaintance with him, Ermina, nevertheless, remained indifferent to him, finding Maupassant unkempt. According to a beautiful neighbor, Guy dressed poorly, despite a decent income, wore some incredible old ties, and besides, he lisped. But the hardened womanizer and cynic seemed to be seriously in love. Perhaps the reason for the suddenly flared up passion of a celebrity for the lovely Hermine was the inaccessibility of a young lady. The woman firmly rejected the claims of Maupassant. The writer, who had never been rejected before, was discouraged.

Love dream

Paradoxical changes occurred with the same man who did not know the delights of platonic love, preferring sensual pleasures to her. He tenderly courted a charming neighbor, was restrained and patient with her, devoting every free minute to communication with an unapproachable beauty. Guy was always ready to give up all his affairs for a fleeting meeting with this amazing woman. Inaccessible, but from this even more attractive Ermina, became the woman who again raised chastity, purity and dignity at its best on a pedestal in the eyes of the writer.

Could the carnal pleasures that Maupassant indulged in with rapture compare with the storm of emotions and feelings that flared up in him at the thought of a charming neighbor? The greatest French singer of love often lacked words to convince the object of love of his feelings. He forgot all his girlfriends, exchanging their ardor for endless conversations with Ermina.

Guy did not leave the hope to win the heart of the devoted wife of a neighbor. But this same hope was wearing him down, haunted him, deprived of his vitality. It seemed that just a little more and the beauty would surrender her positions. But over and over again, very confidently and calmly, the girl made it clear that she would remain faithful to her husband.

Unfinished novel

Among the writer's biographers, there is an opinion that Ermina nevertheless fell in love with the writer and gave herself to him, after which Maupassant lost interest in the subject of his long adoration. However, it is worth remembering that until the end of the days of the writer Ermina Lecomte du Nui and Guy de Maupassant maintained very warm relations, wrote each other letters full of touching participation.

Perhaps the golden-haired beauty from the seaside had affection for her neighbor. But these feelings can be classified rather as related. Over the years of communication, a man and a woman have become truly close friends. Perhaps Ermina was ready to surrender to the will of Guy's feelings, but the writer himself set off on a voyage on the seething sea of passion. He conquered women's hearts again and again, his women replaced one another. Only a slight pain in his heart remained his unrequited love, unconquered loyalty, endless tenderness - Ermina Lecomte du Nui.

The love of the writer, reflected in the novel "Our Heart"

The whole depth of Maupassant's mental suffering was reflected in his last completed novel, Our Heart. In the cold Madame de Burne, Ermina easily recognized herself, while the descriptions of the suffering of André Mariolle revealed to her the depth of the feelings experienced by the writer in relation to herself.

Among all the sensual works of Maupassant, Our Heart stands out in some special way. Perhaps because, identifying himself with every hero of his books, it was only in this novel that the romantic realist Maupassant discovered his own emotional experiences and longing for an unfulfilled dream.

It seems incredible today the story of how passion brought hard labor - this was the story of Sonya-Golden Handle and Kochubchik.