"La Maison Tellier" is a short story by

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

published in 1881 in a series of short stories under the same title. Built around a prostitution theme, it is considered one of his best realist short stories, after his renowned '' Boule de Suif''. The short story was republished in various publications notably in ''La Lanterne'' magazine in February 1889 and in the periodical ''

Gil Blas ''Gil Blas'' (french: L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane ) is a picaresque novel by Alain-René Lesage published between 1715 and 1735. It was highly popular, and was translated several times into English, most notably as The Adventures of G ...

'' in October 1892.

Subject

"Madame" Julia Tellier, a well-known

procuress Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

who runs a whorehouse in Normandy, takes her girls on an outing to her brother's village to attend the confirmation of her niece Constance. Her regular patrons are taken aback when they discover the whorehouse is "closed" without explanation that weekend. They finally discover the announcement explaining the reason. Meanwhile, Joseph Rivet, Madame Tellier's brother, is entertaining a more sinister idea far beyond the religious festivity...

In popular culture

There have been a number of important adaptations of the short story: *1952: ''La Maison Tellier'' was used as part of ''

Le Plaisir ''Le Plaisir'' (English title, ''House of Pleasure'') is a 1952 French comedy-drama anthology film by German-born film director Max Ophüls (1902–1957) adapting three short stories by Guy de Maupassant — " Le Masque" (1889), " La Maison ...

'', a French film by

Max Ophüls Maximillian Oppenheimer (; 6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls (; ), was a German-French film director who worked in Germany (1931–1933), France (1933–1940 and 1950–1957), and the United States (1947–1950). He made near ...

(95 minutes), with Madeleine Renaud, Jean Gabin and Danielle Darrieux. The film is a trilogy of three Maupassant stories. *1964: It was used in ''Un commerce tranquille'', a Swiss film by Met Welles and Guido Franco *1981: ''La Maison Tellier'', a French-Spanish joint film by director Pierre Chevalier (103 minutes) *2008: ''La Maison Tellier'', a French TV film by Élisabeth Rappeneau (90 minutes) The French musical group La Maison Tellier derives its name from the Maupassant story.

Editions

*''La Maison Tellier'' in ''Maupassant, contes et nouvelles'', notes by Louis Forestier, Gallimard publishers, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1974.

References

Jean-Claude Lutanie Jean-Claude Lutanie is a French writer. Biography Jean-Claude Lutanie was born in Poitiers, France in 1951. In the 1970s and 80s, he entered into social protest and contestation, but early on, broke off from any movement in particular. In 1981, he ...

, ''Une lecture paranoïaque-critique de La maison Tellier, Guy de Maupassant'', Le Veilleur Éditeur, 1993 –

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maison Tellier 1881 short stories Short stories adapted into films Short stories by Guy de Maupassant