2. Cannes: This resort and its flower festival, as important in Maupassant’s time as now (when it stages the International Film Festival), are associated with several local festivals at Nice, Menton, Grasse, etc., centred on the perfume industry and including battles of flowers.

IDYLL

First published in 1884 as ‘Idylle’.

1. ‘I’m from Casale’: Before the unification of Italy, Asti and Casale were part of the kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia.

MOTHER SAUVAGE

First published in 1884 as ‘La mère Sauvage’.

1. This was in 1869: In other words, two years before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war.

MADAME HUSSON’S ROSE KING

First published in 1887, as ‘Le rosier de Madame Husson’.

1. This conte has been the subject of many adaptations including a film version by Marcel Pagnol in 1950. Eric Crozier used it to form the basis of his libretto for Benjamin Britten’s opera, Albert Herring.

2. the poor crippled iron beast: Accidents were a relatively common occurrence in the early days of the railway. Maupassant’s comparison of the locomotive to a fallen horse anticipates the famously harrowing derailment scene in Zola’s La Bête humaine, published three years later.

3. what Lucullus was to Cicero: Lucullus was a Roman consul in 74 B.C. and conqueror of Mithridates. Having retired from military affairs, he devoted himself to a life of indolence and luxury, living in a style of extraordinary magnificence.

4. a Crassane pear from a Duchesse: A Crassane is a very soft, sweet and juicy pear which comes into season late in the year, around November to December. The Duchesse is also soft and renowned for its extremely delicate flavour.

5. between Balzac and Eugène Sue: Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was a powerful and prolific novelist and author of La Comédie humaine, a series of novels remarkable for the scope of their social realism. Balzac’s interest in the theories of Mesmer, Gall, Lavater and Swedenborg are reflected in the work, which categorizes its large number of characters as representatives of all types and classes in French society during the Consulate, the Empire, the Restoration and the July Monarchy. Some of the better known titles include: Le Père Goriot, Gobseck, Eugénie Grandet, Les Illusions perdues, La Cousine Bette, Le Cousin Pons, Les Chouans and many more.

Eugéne Sue (1804-57) was an immensely popular writer of sensational novels depicting Parisian low-life.

6. between the Apollo of Belvedere and the statue of General Blanmont: The Apollo of Belvedere (Museum of the Vatican) is an ancient statue of the Greek god of light, reputed to represent in sculpture the ideal male form. General Blanmont lived from 1770–1846. A marble statue of this son of Gisors stands beneath the castle there.

7. Baron Davillier … Hispano-Arabic pottery: Jean-Charles, Baron Davillier (1823–83), great patron of the arts who donated his collection to the Louvre.