“ …he had hoped to improve his condition - and for that reason he was in Paris!”
If Georges Duroy is a bel ami, a good friend, I’d rather have an enemy. I started out able to accept his decision to leave the army to find a new life in Paris. After all, Paris holds so much promise! So much excitement! But, I missed the first clue: he was disgusted with military life, a life of honor and integrity, discipline and hard work.
Georges finds himself in Paris with no job and no money. He lacks even the proper attire with which to attend an interview. Fortunately, he meets up with Forestier, an acquaintance who loans him money to buy a suit, as well as arranges an interview with the newspaper La Vie Francaise. Now Georges has the opportunity to earn an income of his own. He can meet new and powerful people.
However, he has difficulty beginning the very first article he must write, about his time in Arabia, and seeks assistance from Madame Forestier. She helps him write such an effective article that his position is secure. And now he sets his sights on her friends.
First is Clothilde, a married woman who meets him in the apartments she rents for their assignations. Then, he marries Madeleine Forestier, who has trusted him enough to attend the final days of husband’s life as he lays dying in the south of France. Neither of these women being enough to satiate him, he seduces their friend, Madame Walter, another married woman and mother of two daughters: Rose, who is plain and dull; the other, Suzanne, a true beauty. Of course it is Suzanne whom Georges has decided he must make his own.
With no regard for the destruction he causes in other people’s lives, Georges carries on with his intention to fuel his own lusts. It is a familiar story in literature, reminding me in some ways of Madame Bovary’s lover. They are scoundrels without shame, utterly bewitching women who ought to know better.
It interests me that de Maupassant focuses on Georges’ conquests more than on the broken hearts of the women he has seduced. Are we simply shown his character, or lack there of, to read an intriguing story? Is his portrait a picture of life in Paris during the Belle Epoque of the 1880’s?
No, I believe we are to see the kind of person who exists in any period of time, the narcissist under whose charms so many fall prey. It is an ironic twist that Georges Duroy is nicknamed Bel Ami by so many of the woman who know him, showing that they don’t really know him at all. Or, they have yet to find that he is anything but a good friend.
Even when he warns one of them with these words:
“My dear, love is not eternal. One loves and one ceases to love. When it lasts it becomes a drawback. I want none of it! However, if you will be reasonable, and will receive me as a friend, I will come to see you as formerly. Can you do that?”
It brings to mind the staying. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Unless you don’t mind being one of many in a long line of jilted lovers.
(I read Bel Ami, with great interest, for Paris in July 2025 hosted by Emma at Words and Peace. Find links to all the posts for this event here.)
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