Riassunto
Riassunto di L’Horla
A chi è rivolto
For readers who like ghost stories and psychological suspense, and also sly comedy about marriage, money and manners. Anyone who enjoys vivid short tales set in Normandy, Paris and the Alps will find plenty to love.
Che cos’è questo libro
The Horla is a collection of short fiction by Guy de Maupassant, the French writer who died in 1893. It opens with the title tale, a diary kept by a man who comes to believe that an invisible being has moved into his house. Around it stand a dozen shorter pieces, which move between terror, comedy and quiet sorrow. Each one can be heard in a few minutes, and each leaves a sharp picture in the mind.
In these pages you meet a country gentleman who cannot leave his own chair when he wants to, a hunter haunted by the cry of a lost bird, and an upholsterer on trial after a fishing quarrel. You meet a wife with a clever plan for divorce, a priest who invites three old women to a soldiers' feast, and two guides snowed in at an Alpine inn. You also get the habits of the writer: quick scenes, close attention to how people really talk, and a clear eye for greed, vanity and fear. Let us begin with the diary that gives the book its name.
In questo riassunto
- 1A happy man begins to sickenFree
- 2Water vanishes while he sleeps
- 3The invisible presence makes itself known
- 4He tries to trap the Horla
- 5Hunters, fishermen and a clever wife
- 6Priests, soldiers and the cost of cruelty
- 7Passion, pity and the art of the short tale
Punto chiave 1 di 7
A happy man begins to sicken
The diary begins on May 8 in a mood of pure pleasure. The narrator lies under a great plane tree in front of his house beside the Seine, with the spires of Rouen in the distance. A line of ships passes, and he salutes a white Brazilian three-master without knowing why.
Four days later a fever sets in, and a sadness he cannot explain. He wonders how the air, the clouds or the colour of a day can change a mood, and he reflects on how little our senses can detect. Our eyes miss what is too small or too far, and our ears turn vibrations into music. How many things might surround us that we simply cannot perceive?
By mid May the fear is real. His doctor finds a quick pulse and tense nerves and prescribes showers and potassium bromide, neither of which helps. Each evening an anxiety grows, and he locks his bedroom door twice, bolts it, and checks under the bed. Sleep arrives like an executioner, and with it a nightmare in which someone kneels on his chest and squeezes his throat.
A walk in the Roumare Forest brings the same dread, the sense that someone walks just behind him on the empty path. He decides a journey will cure him. At Mont Saint-Michel he climbs the great abbey, and a monk tells him of goats with human faces said to wander the sands. When the narrator doubts such beings, the monk answers that nobody sees even a tiny part of what exists, and he points to the wind, which kills and cannot be seen.
That’s 1 of 7 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- The narrator
- An unnamed Frenchman records his growing fear of an unseen presence he calls the Horla.
- The Horla
- An apparently invisible being whom the narrator fears, its existence remains inseparable from his uncertain perceptions.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 45,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 3 h
- Listening time4 h 55 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages
Questions about L’Horla
What is The Horla about?
It is a diary in which a Norman landowner records fever, nightmares and empty water carafes, and slowly concludes that an invisible being has moved in with him. The book also holds a dozen shorter tales about love, greed and war.
What is the Horla in the story?
The Horla is the name the narrator hears for the invisible creature that shares his house and bends his will. He imagines it as a new kind of being that will rule humanity as humans rule animals.
Is The Horla a true story?
No. It is fiction by Guy de Maupassant, who died in 1893. The narrator's talk of hypnosis and unseen forces reflects the scientific curiosity of the author's day, and the diary form makes the horror feel immediate.
Is The Horla easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that matters here: the tales are short, the language is plain and the scenes are vivid. Most stories rest on one clear situation, so you can follow them in a single sitting.
What other stories are in The Horla collection?
Besides the title story, it includes The Hole, Saved, Clochette, The Marquis de Fumerol, The Sign, The Devil, The Kings, In the Woods, A Family, Joseph, The Inn and The Wanderer, which range from comedy to tragedy.