Ask The Puma Research Guides: The Necklace (La Parure)

The Necklace (La Parure)

The short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant is set in Paris in 1884.  Mathilde Loisel is the wife of a junior clerk in the Ministry of Public Instruction.  She is very unhappy and believes she deserves a higher station in life.  They are invited to a party that is being given by the husband’s superior, the Minister of Public Instruction.  The wife borrows a diamond necklace from a wealthy friend, Madame Forestier, for the party.  The necklace is lost on the way home.  The wife does not want to tell her friend so they borrow money and replace the necklace.  Their life becomes even more miserable as they work to pay off the large debt.  After it is paid off the wife runs into her friend and tells her about the lost necklace.  Madame Forestier takes her friend’s hands and says “Oh! My poor Mathilde! But mine was a fake. It was worth no more than five hundred francs!” 

LINCCWeb online catalog – Search Terms

• Guy de Maupassant

Call Numbers for Browsing the Shelves

• PQ2349
• PQ2357

Circulating Books

• Brooks, Cleanth and Robert Penn Warren.  Understanding Fiction.  1979.

                      Call Number:  PN3355 .B74 1979

• Fusco, Richard.  Maupassant and the American Short Story.  1994.

                      Call Number:  PS374 .S5 F87 1994

• Maupassant, Guy de.  The Necklace and Other Short Stories.  1992.

                  Call Number:  PQ2349 .A4 E5 1992

Reference Materials

• Masterplots II: Short Story Series (Revised Edition) – Call Number: REF PN3326 .M27 2004

o   Vol. 5, pg. 2837-2840      

• Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism – Call Number:  REF PN761 .N5

o   Vol. 1, pg. 447, 463

• Short Story Criticism – Call Number:  PN3321 .S5

o   Vol. 1, pg. 273, 278, 280, 284, 286, 288

• Short Stories for Students – Call Number: REF PN3330 .S386

o   Vol. 4, pg. 166-181

Research Databases

To access Valencia’s research databases, open your Atlas account, select ‘Search the Library’, then select ‘Databases A-Z’.

•  Literature Resources from Gale

This Research Guide is designed to help users find information on a particular topic within the Valencia College East Campus Library.  This is by no means a comprehensive list of resources and other resources may be available on this topic.  Please check the LINCCWeb, Valencia East’s online catalog, to verify the availability of circulating books within the library.  Feel free to ask a librarian for help if you need further assistance.

Valencia College East Campus Library

Last Revised on November 21, 2021