Guy de Maupassant (5 August, 1859 – 6 July, 1893) was a French writer and a master of short stories. By User Den fjättrade ankan on sv.wikipedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1250918 1)      When he was 11, Maupassant’s mother risked social disgrace by getting divorced and keeping her two sons. 2)      Laure Le Poittevin, Maupassant’s mother, became the most influential figure in his life. 3)      As a young boy, Maupassant loved nature, which became a theme for many of his stories. 4)      At the age of 13, Maupassant was placed at a private school which he disliked and got himself expelled from. 5)      In junior high school and high-school he was proven to be a good student. 6)      Maupassant saved poet Algernon Charles Swinburne from drowning. 7)      In 1871 Maupassant enlisted as a volunteer in the Franco-Prussian War. He served ten years as a clerk in the Navy Department. 8)      Maupassant’s talent and business acumen made him a rich man. He published 2-4 volumes of each year of short stories. 9)      He also wrote under several pseudonyms. 10)   Among many other Parisians, Maupassant didn’t care for the Eifel Tower.