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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when one brother’s good fortune makes the other question everything his family holds together?
On a fishing trip off Le Havre, the Roland family seems at ease. Then news arrives: their longtime friend Léon Maréchal has died, leaving his fortune to Jean alone. For Pierre, a doctor whose practice struggles, his younger brother’s inheritance sharpens an old sense that life always favours Jean.
As Jean looks toward marriage with Madame Rosémilly, Pierre begins to study familiar faces and habits for evidence. Their mother, Louise, longs for peace but fears what his questions might uncover. In Pierre and Jean, Guy de Maupassant follows jealousy into an ordinary home, where love and trust begin to give way to doubt.
What you’ll discover
- Brothers pulled apart Follow Pierre and Jean as unequal fortunes put their affection under painful pressure.
- A mother’s anxious silence Meet Louise, whose wish for household peace meets her fear of a searching question.
- Suspicion taking root Watch Pierre search familiar faces and old habits for signs he can no longer ignore.
- Life beside the port Enter middle-class Le Havre, from a family fishing trip to the tensions within its home.
- The art of fiction Explore Maupassant’s prefatory essay alongside a story shaped by close attention to ordinary lives.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy family dramas, quiet suspense inside a home, seaside Normandy, and stories where jealousy and love sit at the same table.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Small contests reveal an old rivalry
- A gift divides the family
- Gossip turns envy into suspicion
- Memory becomes a search for proof
- A small lie deepens the doubt
- Remorse cannot stop Pierre’s cruelty
- Respectability makes silence a burden
- Small details carry hidden feeling
- Jealousy turns home into conflict
Who’s who
- Pierre RolandThe elder son, a restless young doctor full of schemes and pride, who envies his brother and wants certainty about the family's past.
- Jean RolandThe younger son, a fair, gentle lawyer who loves peace, receives a fortune, and wants to marry Madame Rosémilly.
- Madame Louise RolandTheir mother, orderly and sentimental, who tries to keep both sons at peace and guards a private grief.
- Old RolandThe father, a retired jeweler and amateur sailor, loud and good-natured, who sees only luck in the inheritance.
- Madame RosémillyA young, sensible, wealthy widow who prefers Jean and wants a steady, respectable marriage.
- Captain BeausireA short, round retired sailor and fishing friend of Roland who loves food, wine and tall stories.
- MarowskoA timid old Polish pharmacist who admires Pierre, invents liqueurs and hopes for the doctor's help.
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Pierre and Jean
by Guy de Maupassant · 1888
An inheritance leaves one brother wealthy and the other questioning their mother's honor.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“The truth is sometimes implausible.”
In short
A fishing boat drifts beneath the white cliffs near Le Havre, and a retired jeweler curses the fish that will not bite. His two grown sons row home, each hiding a small rivalry behind a smile.
Pierre and Jean at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 15 min2 h 35 min fast, 3 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 46,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1888by Guy de Maupassant
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A fishing trip shows the brothers' quiet rivalry
The story opens on the Pearl, a small boat owned by old Roland, a former Paris jeweler who retired to Le Havre out of love for the sea. He has brought his wife, his two sons and a young widow, Madame Rosémilly, but the fish refuse to bite. His temper breaks in a loud curse, and everyone else gives way.
Pierre, thirty, is the elder son, a newly qualified doctor with a head full of schemes. Jean is five years younger, fair, calm and fresh from his law degree. A faint jealousy has lived between them since Jean was born. Pierre watched the baby take his parents' love, and he read Jean's gentleness as weakness.
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Details
- First published
- 1888
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Maupassant, Guy de. Pierre and Jean. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/pierre-and-jean.
Maupassant, G. de. (2026). Pierre and Jean. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/pierre-and-jean (Original work published 1888)
Maupassant, Guy de. Pierre and Jean. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/pierre-and-jean.
@book{maupassant2026pierre,
author = {Maupassant, Guy de},
title = {Pierre and Jean},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/pierre-and-jean},
note = {First published 1888}
}
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What is Pierre and Jean about?
It follows a Norman family in Le Havre after a family friend leaves his whole fortune to the younger son, Jean. The elder son, Pierre, grows jealous and begins to suspect a hidden reason for the gift.
Who are Pierre and Jean in the novel?
They are brothers, sons of a retired Paris jeweler, Roland, and his wife Louise. Pierre, the elder, is a dark, restless doctor. Jean, the younger, is a fair, calm lawyer who loves peace.
Why does Maupassant begin with a preface?
In the preface he discusses the novel in general and argues that it need not follow a fixed pattern. He praises careful observation and honest, personal vision, which shows how to read the story that follows.
The author
Guy de Maupassant
1850–1893 · French novelist and story writer
Guy de Maupassant was a French writer born in Normandy in 1850. He wrote short stories and novels, including A Woman’s Life (1883), Bel-Ami (1885), The Horla (1887), and Pierre and Jean (1888). He lived in France, worked as a government clerk in Paris, and died in Paris in 1893.
“The truth is sometimes implausible.”
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