Pierre and Jean

Guy de Maupassant · 1850–1893 · France

Originally Pierre et Jean (French)

Why it matters

Two brothers' rivalry curdles into suspicion when one unexpectedly inherits a fortune. A tightly wound novel of jealousy and buried family secrets, and Maupassant's own favorite among his longer fiction.

At a glance

Tight, controlled prose with a single sustained psychological thread.