1873 Appointed to Ministère de la Marine or French Admiralty. Acquires boat and sleeps at room near Argenteuil, on the river, twice a week. Becomes part of roistering river set. Develops fencing and shooting skills.

1874–5 First Impressionists exhibition chez the photographer Nadar. Meets influential Edmond de Goncourt at Flaubert’s apartment in the rue Murillo. Also meets his polar opposite in character, the poet Mallarmé, and is invited to join the latter’s select Thursday gatherings. Regular meetings with Huysmans, Zola and other writers. Spends Sundays with Flaubert. Confides to friend he has contracted the pox from which François I died, i.e. syphilis. Begins to place the articles and short stories he has begun to write. His first conte, ‘La main d’écorché’ (‘The Shrivelled Hand’) is published under the pseudonym Joseph Prunier in L’Almanach lorrain de Pont-à-Mousson in February 1875.

1878 Zola effects a meeting between Sarah Bernhardt and Maupassant to discuss a play he is writing. Works on his first novel. Through Flaubert, is appointed to Ministry of Education and resigns from Naval Administration.

1880 Publication in April of the short story ‘Boule de Suif’ which is to make his name. Heart trouble begins. Suffers from alopecia and increasingly poor vision. Throughout his life from now on his health is in constant decline. Death of Flaubert on 8 May and Maupassant becomes his literary executor. Begins to ease out of Ministry work, securing a succession of variously paid leaves of absence. Attempts to get Hervé a position with newly formed Panama Company. Begins affair with Gisèle d’Estoc.

1883 Publication of his first novel Une Vie, at first usefully banned from the Hachette chain of station bookshops. There now follows a ceaseless flow of short stories as Maupassant’s name becomes well known and his writing is much in demand.

1884 Begins relationship with the comtesse Potocka as well as a correspondence with Marie Bashkirtseff. Has house built on mother’s land at Etretat and rents suite of rooms with cousin at a Paris hotel. Spends much time from now on in the south of France.

1885 Publication of his best-known novel, Bel-Ami, in serial form. With the proceeds buys a higher tonnage boat at Antibes to replace his Louisette. Helps Hervé set up horticultural business.

1886 Last exhibition of Impressionists in Paris. Narrowly misses having to fight a duel. Honour satisfied in time. Ever more prolific output of stories.

1887 Publication of Mont-Oriol, set in the Auvergne and reflecting life at a spa town. Signs petition protesting against construction of the Eiffel Tower. Work on La Guillette, his Normandy house. Balloon trip to Belgium generates publicity. Further travels in Italy and North Africa. Hervé begins to show signs of mental instability. Mother’s chronic ill-health begins to deteriorate still further.

1888 Publication of Pierre et Jean, a study of jealousy, accounted by some to be his finest novel. Purchase of new boat, the Zingara, which becomes Bel-Ami II. Publication of a series of travel sketches, Sur l’Eau.