Bel Ami

"Bel Ami," written at the height of Maupassant's career, is his second novel, published in 1885. The story chronicles Georges Duroy's corrupt rise to power. Georges, a down-and-out journalist, comes from a humble background yet concocts a spectacular rise to the top of Parisian society, most of which he achieves by manipulating a series of powerful, intelligent and wealthy mistresses. "Bel Ami" is not only a vivid portrait of a glamorously crooked and long-vanished Paris, but also a strikingly modern depiction of the destructiveness of unconstrained ambition, sex and power.