Maupassant dear friend what. Georges Duroy, the protagonist of the novel "Dear Friend": characteristics
An 1885 novel by the French writer Guy de Maupassant. Tells about an adventurer who dreams of making a brilliant career. He does not have any talents, except that with his appearance he can win the heart of any lady, and his conscience forgives him any meanness. And ... this is enough to become strong in this world.
The novel includes an understanding of not only personal, but also social and philosophical (religious) issues. The social principle of "Dear Friend" is expressed in the description of several social classes: the peasantry (George's parents), the intelligentsia (employees of the "French Life"), politicians (Foreign Minister Laroche-Mathieu), the nobility (Comte de Vaudrec and others). In his novel, Maupassant shows how, at the end of the 19th century, some social frameworks are blurred and others are formed: the protagonist of the work, a native of a peasant environment, at the beginning becomes a military man, then a journalist, then a noble person. The latter turns out to be quite easy: Georges changes his last name from Duroy to Du Roy de Cantel (after the name of the area where he was born and raised), begins to sign his articles with it, and over time everyone gets used to his new social status.
Georges Duroy, a handsome young man, lives in Paris in dire need. One day he meets his old army comrade, Charles Forestier, who served with him in Africa. Charles became a successful journalist. He plans to arrange a dinner party and invites Georges, and at the same time invites him to try his hand at journalism.
At dinner, Georges meets Charles's wife, Madeleine, her friend Clotilde de Marel, Forestier's boss and, concurrently, a big businessman, Mr. Walter, as well as several colleagues of the journalist. Duroy charms all the interlocutors at the table, likes Walter and receives the first task - to write an article: "Memoirs of an African shooter." Despite trying to think of something, he fails. Georges turns to Madeleine for help, who ends up writing a wonderful article for him. The article is accepted and he is given the task of writing a sequel.
Georges trying to get back to Madeleine, but Forestier is indignant and forbids his wife to work for Georges. Georges rewrites the article several times, but it is never accepted. Then he decides to go into reporting. Georges is taught this art by a newspaper employee named Saint-Potin.
Soon, Georges becomes a successful reporter, his talent does not go unnoticed by his superiors. Georges earns well, but he fails to get rich. He starts an affair with a society lady, Clotilde de Marel, and becomes her lover. He likes her little daughter Lorina, who gives him the nickname - Dear friend. Soon all the ladies with whom Georges communicates begin to call him by this nickname. Clotilde helps him with money, while Georges is angry with her and promises to return everything "as soon as there is money." However, he always sits without money. Being at a secular dinner with Mr. Walter, he manages to please his wife, who begs her husband for a raise for Georges. Once he quarrels with Clotilde, and in the form of revenge he wants to return all the debt to her, but does not find the money. Soon he puts up with her, and this is no longer necessary.
Trying to borrow money from Forestier, he receives a handout of 20 francs and dreams of taking revenge by pointing his horns. But he receives a cold refusal from Madeleine, she offers to be friends and allies. Meanwhile, Mr. Forestier is getting worse and he leaves for Cannes for treatment. From there, a telegram arrives from Madeleine with a request to come urgently, as Forestier is about to die. Upon the arrival of Georges, Charles really dies, and Georges invites Madeleine to marry him. She agrees to become Madame Duroy, provided that he buys himself a title of nobility and will not interfere with her usual way of life, meeting with old friends. Soon Georges becomes Mr. Du Roy and marries Madeleine. Georges, however, renews his love affair with Clotilde. Madeleine helps him write articles, it is very noticeable to those around him that Georges' articles are becoming similar to Forestier's old articles. In the newspaper, Georges takes the position of Forestier, and they begin to tease him, as if accidentally calling him the name of a deceased friend. He gets angry at this, begins to be jealous of Madeleine and suspect her of treason.
The newspaper, where Georges works, from a minor turns into a leading political publication. Walter, leading business in Africa, uses it as a means of propaganda and political pressure, at the same time, Madeleine makes acquaintance with various political and secular persons, collects information. Madeleine and Georges, working together, write articles helping to overthrow the old government and take the ministerial post to an old friend of Madeleine and Walter, deputy Laroche-Mathieu. Duroy's house turns into a major political salon, Georges writes articles commissioned by Laroche-Mathieu. Soon, wanting to take revenge on Madeleine, he seduces his boss's wife, Mrs. Walter, who reveals her husband's secret about a huge financial fraud with Moroccan bonds, part of which were newspaper articles ordered by Georges.
Madeleine's old friend dies (there is a hint in the text that he is her lover), Count Vaudrec, and leaves her a million francs as a legacy. Duroy sure that she was his mistress, he forces his wife to give him half the amount, because otherwise the fact that a married woman received an inheritance from an elderly count will cause rumors in society. This is how he becomes rich. However, at the same time, Walter's bond fraud takes place, which thanks to this becomes the richest man in the country. Georges is jealous of Walter and regrets that he cannot now marry Walter's daughter Suzanne who maintains a good relationship with him.
Georges' relationship continues with both his old mistress, Clotilde de Marel, and Walter's wife. The latter, being an aged woman, very pious and strictly educated, at first resisted for a long time, but then rushed into a relationship with him as if into a whirlpool. She quickly got tired of Georges, and he began to avoid her in every possible way, which caused her great suffering and annoyed him even more. Relations with Clotilde were also not smooth, but she forgave him - both after marrying Madeleine and after discovering another mistress.
Thinking about marrying Walter's daughter and getting a dowry, Georges with the morality police catches his wife cheating with Laroche-Mathieu, thanks to which he manages to topple the minister and get a divorce from his wife. At the same time, he sets the stage for a relationship with Susanna, convinces her to give up her well-born fiancé and persuades her to elope with him. They run away together, and when they return, an angry Walter is forced to marry his daughter, otherwise rumors will spread that she has been dishonored. Wife walter categorically against marriage, she begins to hate her daughter and Georges, but, unable to resist the circumstances, loses heart and gives up. So Georges becomes the heir to a huge fortune, the son-in-law of the first rich man in France. At his wedding, the poet-philosopher Norbert de Waren sums up: "The future belongs to the crooks." And Georges himself at the wedding looks at Clotilde and remembers what a wonderful mistress she was. And his look lets her know that everything is the same with them.
Georges Duroy received change from the cashier of the restaurant for five francs and went to the exit.
Stately by nature and, moreover, retaining the non-commissioned officer's bearing, he drew himself up and, twisting his mustache with a habitual jovial gesture, captured the belated visitors with that sharp-sighted look with which a handsome man, like a hawk, looks out for prey.
The women looked up at him; they were three young working women, a middle-aged music teacher, carelessly combed, slovenly dressed, in a dusty hat, in a crooked dress, and two bourgeois women with their husbands - regulars of this cheap tavern.
He stood for a minute on the sidewalk, contemplating what to do next. Today is the twenty-eighth of June; until the first day he has only three francs forty centimes left. This means: two lunches, but no breakfasts or two breakfasts, but no lunches - to choose from. Since breakfast costs ten francs centimes, and lunch one and a half francs, by refusing dinners, he will gain twenty francs centimes; therefore, he calculated, it would be possible to dine twice more on bread and sausage and drink two mugs of beer on the boulevard. And this is his biggest expense and the biggest pleasure that he allows himself in the evenings. He moved down the Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.
He walked in the same way as in those days when he was wearing a hussar uniform: puffing out his chest and slightly spreading his legs, as if he had just dismounted from his horse. He unceremoniously squeezed through the crowd that filled the street: he hit passers-by with his shoulder, pushed, and did not give way to anyone. Moving his worn top hat a little to one side and tapping his heels, he walked with the arrogant air of a brave soldier who found himself among civilians, who absolutely despises everything: both people and houses - the whole city.
Even in this cheap, sixty-franc suit, he managed to maintain a certain elegance—vulgar, eye-catching, but elegance nonetheless. Tall, good figure, curly blond, with a reddish tint, hair parted in the middle, twisted mustache, as if foaming on the lip, light blue eyes with gimlet pupils - everything about him resembled a seducer from a tabloid novel.
It was one of those summer evenings when there is not enough air in Paris. The city, as hot as a sauna, seemed to be choking and sweating. The granite maws of the sewers spread a stench; from the basement floors, from the low kitchen windows, came the disgusting smell of slops and sour sauce.
The porters, having taken off their jackets, were smoking at the gates on straw chairs; past them, with hats in their hands, barely moving their feet, wandered passers-by.
Having reached the boulevard, Georges Duroy again hesitated. He was drawn to the Champs Elysees, to the Bois de Boulogne - to breathe fresh air among the trees. But he also experienced another desire - the desire to meet a woman.
How will it happen? He did not know this, but he had been waiting for her for three months now, every day, every evening. However, thanks to his happy appearance and gallant manner, here and there he happened to snatch a little love, but he hoped for something more and better.
His pockets were empty, and meanwhile the blood was playing, and he was inflamed at every touch of street women who whispered on the corners: "Come with me, handsome!" - but he did not dare to follow them, since he had nothing to pay; moreover, he kept waiting for something else, other, less accessible, kisses.
And yet he liked to visit places where girls of easy virtue teemed - their balls, restaurants, streets; he liked to jostle among them, to talk to them, to address them as you, to breathe in the pungent smell of their perfume, to feel their closeness. After all, these are also women, and women created for love. He did not at all feel disgust for them, characteristic of a family man.
He walked towards the Madeleine and disappeared into the heat-exhausted stream of people. Large, pavement-filled, crowded cafés paraded their patrons in blindingly bright shop window light. In front of the visitors on square and round tables stood glasses with drinks - red, yellow, green, brown, all kinds of shades, and huge transparent cylindrical pieces of ice sparkled in decanters, cooling the beautiful clear water.
Duroy slowed down, his throat dry.
A burning thirst, a thirst that one feels only on a stuffy summer evening, tormented him, and he evoked in himself the delicious sensation of cold beer pouring down his throat. But if you drink at least two mugs today, then goodbye to tomorrow's meager dinner, and he knew only too well the hours of hunger inevitably associated with the end of the month.
“I’ll wait until ten, and then I’ll drink a mug at the American Cafe,” he decided. “Ah, hell, how, however, I want to drink!” He looked at all these people sitting at the tables and quenching their thirst - all these people who could drink as much as they wanted. He walked past the cafe, casting a mocking and defiant glance at the visitors and determining by eye - by facial expression, by clothes - how much money each of them should have with them. And anger arose in him at these gentlemen who settled down with all the comforts. Rummage in their pockets - you will find gold, and silver, and copper coins. On average, each should have at least two louis; in any cafe, a hundred people, in any case, will be typed; two louis multiplied by a hundred is four thousand francs! "Bastard!" he grumbled, still swaying gracefully. If the former non-commissioned officer had come across one of them at night in a dark alley, - honestly, he would have broken his neck without a twinge of conscience, as he did with village chickens during maneuvers.
Duroy involuntarily came to mind two years that he spent in Africa, in provincial fortresses in the south of Algeria, where he often managed to rob the Arabs to the skin. A cheerful and cruel smile flickered across his lips at the memory of one trick: it cost three Arabs from the Ouled-Alan tribe their lives, but he and his comrades got twenty chickens, two rams, gold, and for all that for half a year they had something to laugh at .
The culprits were not found, and they were not so diligently searched for - after all, the Arab is still considered to be something like the legitimate prey of a soldier.
Not so in Paris. Here you can’t rob for your own pleasure - with a saber on your side and with a revolver in your hand, at large, far from civil justice. Duroy felt all the instincts of a non-commissioned officer, corrupted in a conquered country, speak in him at once. Indeed, those were happy years. What a pity that he did not stay in the desert! But he thought he would be better off here. And it turned out ... It turned out the devil knows what!
Just wanting to make sure how dry his mouth was, he made a slight click and ran his tongue across the palate.
The crowd slid around him, exhausted, lethargic, and he, touching those he met with his shoulder and whistling merry songs, kept thinking about the same thing: “Beasts! And after all, each of these idiots has money!” The men he pushed snarled, the women threw after him: "Impudent!"
He passed the Vaudeville and stopped in front of the American Café, wondering if he should have a beer, he was so thirsty. But before deciding to do so, he glanced at the street clock with its illuminated dial. It was a quarter past ten. He knew himself: as soon as a mug of beer was placed in front of him, he would instantly drain it to the bottom. And what will he do until eleven?
I'll walk to the Madeleine, he told himself, and slowly move back.
At the corner of Opera Square he ran into a fat young man whom he seemed to have seen somewhere.
"Bel ami" won, he is in power. But to what extent has the philistines' ability to defend themselves fallen if they hand their fates into the hands of such unreliable people!
“Everything pure and good in our society has perished and is perishing, because this society is depraved, insane and terrible.”
Screen adaptations
- In 1939, a German adaptation was filmed with Willy Forst in the title role.
- In 1947, the American black-and-white film "Personal Affairs of a Dear Friend" was shot, starring George Sanders.
- In 1955, the novel was again filmed with Johannes Heesters in the title role.
- In 1976, based on the novel, a joint Swedish-French porn tape was filmed. Bel Ami.
- In 2005, a Franco-Belgian film adaptation of the novel was released, starring Sagamore Stevenen.
- In 2012, a film adaptation of the novel was released starring Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman and Christina Ricci.
Notes
Links
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The novel "Dear Friend" was written by Maupassant in 1885. In it, the French writer addressed several classical problems at once, closely related to the main idea of the work - an attempt to show human nature, corrupted by a materialistic society.
The protagonist of the novel- a former military man, Georges Duroy goes through a difficult career path from an ordinary employee of the Northern Railway to the editor-in-chief of the most influential Parisian newspaper, French Life, son-in-law of the millionaire Walter and future deputy. Having begun his ascent with a simple desire to be able to eat every day, Duroy with every social achievement does not cease to acquire new dreams. The main character is always driven by the same feeling - envy: Georges is jealous of Forestier's social position, Walter's multi-million dollar fortune, Laroche-Mathieu's ministerial status. In the first part of the novel, an aspiring journalist tries to achieve public recognition, position and wealth on his own. At the same time, he already dreams of "making a good match" by marrying a woman - smart, rich or influential. Realizing that he himself could not break through, in the second part of the novel, Duroy begins a victorious march “over the corpses”: he proposes to Madeleine next to Forestier’s body, which has not yet cooled down; he seduces Madame Walter after learning of her feelings for him; he secures Susanna's consent to the marriage while still married to Madeleine. At the same time, throughout the story, Georges meets with Clotilde de Marel - his first high society mistress and, as it turns out towards the end of the novel, true love. With Clotilde, he is united by the kinship of natures. In this woman, completely and completely focused on herself and her pleasures, Georges appreciates both bodily beauty and inner independence: only she allows herself to argue with him (up to assault), only she is able not to demand anything from him and at the same time time to give him everything and forgive him everything - insults, beatings, life at her expense, betrayal, marriage. Love for Clotilde de Marel is the only sincere feeling that lives in the soul of Georges Duroy. All other sensations are rooted out of him by the environment - unfair, acquisitive, deceitful.
Artistic issues The novel includes an understanding of not only personal, but also social and philosophical (religious) issues. The social principle of "Dear Friend" is expressed in the description of several social classes: the peasantry (George's parents), the intelligentsia (employees of the "French Life"), politicians (Foreign Minister Laroche-Mathieu), the nobility (Comte de Vaudrec and others). In his novel, Maupassant shows how, at the end of the 19th century, some social frameworks are blurred and others are formed: the protagonist of the work, a native of a peasant environment, at the beginning becomes a military man, then a journalist, then a noble person. The latter turns out to be quite easy: Georges changes his last name from Duroy to Du Roy de Cantel (after the name of the area where he was born and raised), begins to sign his articles with it, and over time everyone gets used to his new social status.
Criticism of French society, corrupted by money, freedom of morals and the pursuit of power, is closely connected in "Dear Friend" with the theme of death. The old poet Norbert de Varen somehow speaks about her to Georges. The lonely creator is trying to convey to his young friend that life is meaningless. Sooner or later, every person begins to approach death. Norbert de Waren does not believe in God. The only thing that consoles his suffering soul is creativity. Georges' attitude to religion in the novel can only be traced in the episode of the meeting with Mrs. Walter in the Trinity Church. On the one hand, the protagonist of the novel admires the prayerful passion of a poor woman unknown to him; on the other hand, it ironizes over the imaginary religiosity of noble ladies who start “tricks in front of the altar”.
The novel "Dear friend" in the highest degree realistic. Maupassant with the greatest care describes the appearance of his characters, the landscapes surrounding them, writes out dialogues with masterful accuracy. The latter are as close to life as possible. The heroes of the novel speak to each other in a simple language, devoid of excessive literary pathos.
The psychologism of "Dear Friend" is closely connected with the disclosure of artistic main character image. Maupassant periodically shows the reader the mental anguish of Georges Duroy: his joy (when he puts on a tailcoat for the first time and begins his journey to a new life, joyfully jumping up the stairs and studying his reflection in the mirror), his fear (on the night before the hero’s duel, he has a fever, he tries to sleep, drink, write letters to his parents), his jealousy (for the deceased friend Forestier), his understanding of the true nature of things (when he realizes that his wife Madeleine will make him a cuckold in the same way, as was the case with her first husband ), his envy (in relation to someone else's wealth and position). The image of Georges Duroy is the image of an unscrupulous villain, walking head over heels towards his goal, but... Many of the hero's actions are determined by life itself: he tries to earn money to feed himself; he betrays Madeleine after she cheats on him with Laroche-Mathieu; he enters the Walter family in order to achieve, finally, respect for himself as a person.
Dear friend
Georges Duroy, the son of prosperous peasants, keepers of a tavern, by the whim of nature, is endowed with a happy appearance. He is slim, tall, blond, he has a wonderful mustache ... He is very popular with women, and he is in Paris. But he has three francs in his pocket, and he won't get his pay until two days later. He is hot, he wants beer ... Duroy wanders around Paris and waits for an opportunity that must present itself, right? The case is most likely a woman. So it will be. All his cases will come from women ... In the meantime, he meets Forestier.
They served together in Algiers. Georges Duroy did not want to be the first in the village and tried his luck in military service. For two years he robbed and killed Arabs. During this time, he developed the habit of walking with his chest puffed out and taking what he wanted. And in Paris you can stick out your chest and push passers-by, but here it is not customary to mine gold with a revolver in your hand.
But the fat Forestier succeeded: he is a journalist, he is a wealthy man, he is complacent - he treats an old friend with beer and advises him to take up journalism. He invites Georges to dinner the next day and gives him two louis (forty francs) so that he can rent a decent suit.
Since this all started. Forestier, it turns out, has a wife - an elegant, very pretty blonde. Her friend is a burning brunette Madame de Marelle with her little daughter. Mr. Walter, deputy, rich man, publisher of the newspaper "French Life" granted. There is also a famous feuilletonist and a famous poet... And Duroy does not know how to handle a fork and does not know how to deal with four glasses... But he quickly orients himself on the ground. And here - oh, how by the way! - the conversation went about Algeria. Georges Duroy enters the conversation like cold water, but he is asked questions ... He is in the center of attention, and the ladies do not take their eyes off him! And Forestier, a friend of Forestier, does not miss the moment and asks his dear patron, Mr. Walter, to take Georges to work in the newspaper ... Well, we'll see, but for now Georges has been ordered two or three essays on Algeria. And another thing: Georges tamed Lorina, Madame de Marelle's little daughter. He kisses the girl and rocks her on his knee, and the mother is amazed and says that M. Duroy is irresistible.
How happily everything began! And all because he is so handsome and well done ... All that remains is to write this damn essay and bring it to Mr. Walter by three o'clock tomorrow.
And Georges Duroy gets down to work. He diligently and beautifully displays the title on a clean sheet: "Memoirs of an African shooter." This name was suggested by Mrs. Walter. But things don't go any further. Who knew that it was one thing to chat at the table with a glass in hand, when the ladies did not take their eyes off you, and it was quite another thing to write! Devilish difference ... But nothing, the morning is wiser than the evening.
But in the morning it's not like that. Efforts are in vain. And Georges Duroy decides to ask his friend Forestier for help. However, Forestier hurries to the newspaper, he sends Georges to his wife: she, they say, will help no worse.
Madame Forestier seated Georges at the table, listened to him, and after a quarter of an hour began dictating an article. Luck carries him. The article is printed - what happiness! He was accepted into the chronicle department, and finally it is possible to leave the hated office of the Northern Railway forever. Georges does everything correctly and accurately: first he received a salary for a month at the box office, and only then he was rude at parting to the boss - he enjoyed it.
One is not good. The second article is not published. But this is not a problem - you need to take another lesson from Madame Forestier, and this is a pleasure. Here, however, no luck: Forestier himself was at home and told Georges that, they say, he did not intend to work instead of him ... Pig!
Duroy is angry and will do the article himself, without any help. You'll see!.. And he made an article, wrote. Only it was not accepted: it was considered unsatisfactory. He redid it. Again not accepted. After three alterations, Georges spat and completely went into reporting.
This is where he turned around. His slyness, charm and arrogance came in very handy. M. Walter himself is satisfied with Duroy's employee. Only one thing is bad: getting twice as much in the newspaper than in the office, Georges felt like a rich man, but this did not last so long. The more money, the more they are missing! And then: after all, he looked into the world of big people, but remained outside this world. He is lucky, he serves in the newspaper, he has acquaintances and connections, he enters the offices, but ... only as a reporter. Georges Duroy is still a poor man and a day laborer. And here, nearby, in their own newspaper - here they are! - people with pockets full of gold, they have luxurious houses and spicy wives ... Why do they have all this? Why not him? There is some mystery here.
Georges Duroy does not know the solution, but he knows what his strength is. And he remembers Madame de Marelle, the one who was with her daughter at Forestier's dinner. "I'm always at home until three o'clock," she said then. Georges called at half past three. Of course he was agitated, but Madame de Marelle is the very hospitality, the very gracefulness. And Lorina treats him like a friend ... And now Georges is invited to dinner at a restaurant, where they will be with Madame de Marelle and the Forestier spouses - two couples.
Dinner in a separate office is refined, lengthy and spicy with casual, light chatter on the verge of obscenity. Madame de Marelle promised to get drunk and kept her promise. Georges accompanies her. In the carriage, he is indecisive for some time, but it seems that she moved her leg ... He rushed to the attack, she surrendered. Finally, he mastered a real secular woman!
The next day, Duroy has breakfast with his beloved. He is still timid, does not know how things will go on, but she is charmingly sweet, and Georges plays love ... And it is so easy in relation to such a magnificent woman! Then Lorina enters and joyfully runs to him: "Ah, dear friend!" This is how Georges Duroy got his name. And Madame de Marelle - her name is Clotilde - turned out to be a delightful mistress. She hired a small apartment for their dates. Georges is dissatisfied: he can't afford it... No, it's already been paid! No, he can't let that happen... She begs, more, more, and he... yields, believing that it's actually fair. No, but how sweet she is!
Georges is completely penniless, but after each meeting he finds one or two gold coins in his vest pocket. He is outraged! Then he gets used to it. Only to calm his conscience keeps counting his debt to Clotilde.
It so happened that the lovers quarreled a lot. It looks like it's a break. Georges dreams - in the form of revenge - to return the debt to Clotilde. But there is no money. And Forestier, in response to a request for money, lent ten francs - a miserable handout. Nothing, Georges will repay him, he will cuckold the old Friend. Moreover, he now knows how easy it is.
But what is it? The attack on Madame Forestier was immediately bogged down. She is affable and frank: she will never become Duroy's mistress, but she offers him her friendship. Perhaps it is more expensive than Forestier's horns! And here is the first friendly advice; pay a visit to Mrs. Walther.
The dear friend managed to show himself to Mrs. Walther and her guests, and not a week goes by, and he is already appointed head of the chronicle department and invited to dinner with the Walthers. Such is the price of friendly advice.
An important event took place at Walter's dinner, but Dear friend does not yet know that this is an important event: he is introduced to the publisher's two daughters - eighteen and sixteen years old (one is ugly, the other is pretty, like a doll). But another thing Georges could not help but notice, Clotilde is still seductive and sweet. They reconciled and the connection was restored.
Forestier is sick, he is losing weight, coughing, and it is clear that he is not a tenant. Clotilde says by the way that Forestier's wife will not be slow to get married as soon as everything is over, and Dear Friend thought about it. In the meantime, the wife took the poor Forestier to the south - to be treated. At parting, Georges asks Madame Forestier to count on his friendly help.
And help was needed: Madame Forestier asks Duroy to come to Cannes, not to leave her alone with her dying husband. A dear friend feels the open space before him. He goes to Cannes and conscientiously fulfills a friendly duty. Until the end. Georges Duroy was able to show Madeleine Forestier that he was a dear friend, a wonderful and kind person.
And everything worked out! Georges marries the widow Forestier. Now he has an amazing assistant - a genius behind the scenes of journalism and political play ... And he has a beautifully arranged house, and he has now become a nobleman: he divided his surname into syllables and took the name of his native village, he is now du Roy de Cantel.
He and his wife are friends. But friendship must also know its limits... Ah, why does such a clever Madeleine tell Georges out of friendship that Madame Walter is crazy about him?... And even worse: she says that if Georges were free, she would advise him to marry Susanna, Walther's pretty daughter.
The dear friend thought again. And Ms. Walter, if you look closely, is still very much even nothing ... There is no plan, but Georges starts the game. This time, the object is respectable and is fighting desperately with itself, but the Dear Friend has overlaid it from all sides and drives it into a trap. And drove. The hunt is over, but the prey wants to go to the hunter again and again. He has other things to do. Then Madame Walter reveals a secret to the hunter.
Military expedition to Morocco resolved. Walter and Laroche, the foreign minister, want to cash in on this. They bought Moroccan bonds cheaply, but their value will skyrocket soon. They make tens of millions. Georges can also buy before it's too late.
Tangier - the gateway to Morocco - is captured. Walter has fifty million, he bought a luxurious mansion with a garden. And Duroy is angry: again he does not have big money. True, the wife inherited a million from a friend, and Georges chopped off half of it, but that's not it. Here is Susanna, Walter's daughter, twenty million dowry...
Georges with the vice police hunts down his wife. She was caught with Minister Laroche. A dear friend knocked down the minister with one blow and got a divorce. But Walter would never give up Susanna for him! There is a trick to this too. No wonder he seduced Madame Walter: while Georges dined and breakfasted with her, he became friends with Susanna, she believes him. And dear friend took the pretty fool away. She's compromised, and her father has nowhere to go.
Georges Duroy with his young wife leaves the church. He sees the Chamber of Deputies, he sees the Bourbon Palace. He has achieved everything.
But he will never be hot or cold again. He would never crave beer so badly.
