Second, short stories.
As a master of short stories, Mo Bosang has made great breakthroughs in both content and form.
Mo Bosang's short stories have the following themes:
First, the Franco-Prussian War. Mo Bosang is concerned about the patriotic enthusiasm of the common people. The prostitute in boule de suif, out of patriotism, can't stand the insults of Prussian officers, but the post car benefits from her passengers, encourages her to satisfy the enemy's lust for her own benefit, and then avoids her meanly. In contrast, the beauty and ugliness of the souls of various characters are obvious. The heroine in Miss Feifei retaliated against the enemy's insult by suppressing him to death. The hero of "Daddy Milon" is firm and calm. In this farmer, he shows the noble spirit of dying. The Old Woman Sovajit is also a story of revenge for relatives. Prisoner describes how the common people captured the enemy tactfully. Two civilians in Two Friends were executed by Prussians as spies for no reason, which exposed the cruelty of the enemy. There are not many novels about the Franco-Prussian War, but they are all excellent. The reason is that Mo Bosang combined the high patriotism of the French people with exposing the cruelty of the enemy, and compared patriotism with selfishness. The theme is prominent, love and hate are clear, and the meaning is clear.
Second, the petty bourgeoisie and civil servants. Mo Bosang exposed their vanity, snobbery, vulgarity and meanness. The heroine of Necklace borrowed a necklace from her girlfriend out of vanity and accidentally lost it. In order to repay this necklace, she worked hard for 10 years, and finally found it was a fake necklace. My uncle Yule thought that Uncle Yule had made a fortune and waited for him to come back. Later, he happened to find himself a poor old man, so he avoided it. On the umbrella, Mrs Olei finally bought a new umbrella for her husband. His colleague played a prank and burned many holes in the umbrella. In order to get insurance compensation, she did not hesitate to make up lies. This stingy and wretched character is very penetrating. Riding is about a small clerk who gets an extra income, so he rides a horse and enjoys it like a rich man. As a result, an old woman was injured, and the old woman refused to come out in the hospital, which made the small staff unbearable. Zou describes a clerk who has copied official documents for 40 years and kept accounts for 40 years. After he was fed up with loneliness, loneliness and boredom, he hanged himself. The hero of "Medal in Hand" allowed his wife to have sex with a member of parliament at the expense of wearing a green hat in order to get a medal that he missed so much. Mo Bosang knows the petty bourgeoisie best, and he writes easily. Therefore, most short stories are based on this theme. Mo Bosang's attitude towards them was satire and lashing, then infuriating them, and finally lamenting their misfortune. For example, Mr Balaam described an honest man cheated by his wife, who spent his life in pain and loneliness. Mo Bosang is full of sympathy for this role. Miss Harriet depicts an ugly English woman who lives in a remote area. She couldn't feel the joy of life and finally committed suicide. There is a faint sympathy between the lines of this novel.
Third, rural life. Mo Bosang lived in Normandy since childhood and was very familiar with rural life. The blacksmith in Simon's Dad is kind and willing to marry a girl who slipped and take on the responsibility of raising a bullied illegitimate child. The story of a female employee describes that rural women are deceived and unable to control their own destiny. The Poor Man shows the tragic ending of the rural homeless. "The Old Man" depicts a picture of rural customs through an old man, and describes the indifferent relationship between the two generations, and the psychology that farmers pay more attention to practical interests although they can't get rid of customs. "Little Rocco" exposes the animal nature of a village head. Mo Bosang's exploration of rural themes lies in inheriting the tradition of verse stories and writing comic scenes: a drunk wants to sell his wife to his companions by weight, and in order to measure her size, they sink her into a bucket full of water; A peasant woman turned her property into an annuity, and her physical condition worried the buyer. In order to check her health, he gave her a small barrel of wine, which soon bottomed out. Tuva was paralyzed in bed, and his wife let him hatch eggs in order to make the best use of it. After the chicken hatched, he developed a kind of maternal love. A groom hates poachers, and his friends let him spend an unpleasant wedding night outdoors. Through various aspects, Mo Bosang shows all kinds of people and colorful life in the countryside.
Fourth, grotesque stories. Mo Bosang's first two novels (Scratched Hands and Rowing) are all written on grotesque themes. Illness and drugs often make Mo Bosang have some hallucinations and special feelings, and Mo Bosang turns them into novels. Ola describes the protagonist being entangled by an invisible man, and the diary is mixed with some scientific predictions. Fear describes mysterious fear. "What? Describe loneliness and hallucinations. " Who knows? "Describe the fear caused by hallucinations. "Hand" tells the story of a skinned hand taking revenge and killing the person who cut it off. Some short stories describe madness. Other novels describe the supernatural phenomena of hypnosis and animal magnetism. At least 30 novels can be classified as grotesque novels. In the late19th century, there appeared some writers who wrote grotesque stories, such as Barba de Orville and Villier de Liesler-Adam. They developed the creative tendency of Hoffman and Edgar Allan Poe, and Mo Bosang was also influenced by this tendency and complicated social thoughts.
In addition, Mo Bosang also wrote many short stories about love, marriage and family life, such as the infatuation of the old woman in The Woman Who Repaired the Cushioned Chair and the illegitimate daughter in Miss Pearl who can't get love and happiness. These novels are very touching. The Elder in the Moonlight can't resist the warm scene of lovers embracing at the foot of the mountain, criticizing the priest's abstinence psychology from opposing love to admitting that love is allowed by God.
As far as content is concerned, Mo Bosang expanded the breadth and depth of short stories describing social life. Petty bourgeois figures did not become protagonists in previous novels. /kloc-in the second half of the 0/9th century, this class had a considerable growth, which constituted a social class second only to workers and peasants, and its unique social attributes gradually emerged. Mo Bosang sympathized with their misfortune and criticized their bad habits, which was undoubtedly sensitive and innovative. As for farmers, before Mo Bosang, literary works were not fully displayed. Mo Bosang went deep into farmers' life and spiritual world, not only writing about their love and marriage, but also exploring their hearts. This is a vivid peasant image. In Mo Bosang's works, it is the peasants who resist the invaders most resolutely and forcefully. He faithfully described the developed countryside at that time. In a word, Mo Bosang's short stories provide a picture of social customs in the second half of19th century.
Mo Bosang's short stories have made great artistic achievements. He raised the creation of short stories to a level that Merimee had not yet reached.
First of all, Mo Bosang deserves to be regarded as a master of novel layout. Some novels intercept a cross-section of life, sometimes write a quite long period of life of the characters, sometimes within a few hours, sometimes from the side, generally using the method of drawing lines, but often carrying out psychological exploration and spiritual excavation. There are both straightforward memories and flashback memories. His writing style is/kloc-a collection of short stories from the 9th century. Generally speaking, he likes this structure: firstly, the background is outlined in concise and vivid language, and then the characters appear, and the screenwriter accurately and forcefully outlines the appearance of the characters; Then the text begins, the story is simple and ordinary, and the sudden events make the plot turn sharply and develop into a tragedy, while the narrative remains calm and objective. "Two Friends" can best reflect the main features of Mo Bosang's realistic art, with only three sentences at the beginning ("Paris is surrounded and languishes in hunger. Sparrows are rarely seen on the roof, and there are even fewer mice in the gutter. People can eat whatever they want. " ), there is no description of the listed materials, and several concise explanations outline the background. Then, the characters appear and describe their figures (Mo Lisuo is tall and straight, Sauvage is short and chubby) and hobbies in a few words, so that readers can feel the excitement and indignation in their intimate tone. Unexpectedly, when they were fishing, they met the Prussians and were killed as spy gun. The bass they caught became a Chinese dish for Prussians. The author didn't say a word, but through the process that the peaceful life of these two ordinary people was disturbed and killed, the accusation against the invaders was penetrating, which is self-evident.
On the surface, Mo Bosang seems to choose materials at will without thinking, but in fact, he is very strict in his choice of subjects. For example, there are many novels about the Franco-Prussian War, and boule de suif stands out because the author has a unique vision of refining life. Mo Bosang chose a prostitute who is at the bottom of society and discriminated as a positive figure to describe, which is different. He compared prostitutes with all kinds of bourgeois figures. For their own interests, these people not only have no general patriotism, but also are dwarfed in personality and etiquette, so they are described more skillfully. From this selected scene, Mo Bosang did provide something more comprehensive, vivid and convincing than reality. Other short stories about the Franco-Prussian War, some praise the calmness and bravery of the characters, some write about the wit and decisiveness of the characters, some write about the cruelty of the enemy, some write about the stupidity of the enemy, and the selection angles are quite diverse.
Mo Bosang is good at describing petty bourgeoisie and peasants, and his figure gallery is rich and colorful. The vain Mrs. Lu Oizel, the stingy and humble Mrs. Olei, Lela who committed suicide because she was poor and didn't enjoy the pleasure of life, Sack Manger who betrayed her wife for honor, the kind and patriotic Buhler de Suef, Miss Feifei, Father Miron and old Sovajit, the kind and honest blacksmith Philip Remy, the cunning and violent village chief Renadet, and Father Oscar who couldn't get rid of the persistent idea of finding the rope. The woman who has a secret crush repairs the upholstered chair, and the older Marignan tries to suppress her lust ... Some have outstanding personality, and some have distinctive temperament. These characters show all kinds of sentient beings in French society at the end of 19. Mo Bosang created as many characters as Moliere and Balzac.
Mo Bosang's short stories are concise, compact and accurate, without any nonsense, and condensed to the highest level. No one can use these skills more skillfully than he. The necklace is very representative. The story is divided into several stages, and each stage is represented by a blank line, omitting the words to be explained: leave a blank line after the opening remarks, and then write that the young clerk couple received the invitation of the minister to attend the party; The second stage is that the heroine borrows a necklace from her girlfriend; In the third stage, the necklace was lost at the party; The fourth stage is to write a debt repayment necklace; The fifth stage writes that the couple live in poverty; The sixth stage is the end. The heroine learned from her girlfriend that she had borrowed a fake necklace. The language is streamlined to the highest degree, but it is distinct and interlocking, leading to a climax and then coming to an abrupt end. When Mo Bosang divides the stages of plot development, he often uses a conjunction, such as "but", "one day", "later" and "that's it". , connecting the preceding with the following, appropriate, as simple as possible.
Mo Bosang has greatly developed the first-person narrative method. Half of his short stories are written in the first person, which can be divided into the following five categories: the narrator tells the listener his own personal experience or witnessed experience (47 articles); When the narrator meets a friend or acquaintance, he tells him his past (32 articles). At the end of these two narratives, he almost always goes back to the scene at the beginning and makes an explanation. The narrator directly appeals to readers to tell personal memories (39 articles); The narrator tells a story he heard, and the text of the story is in the third person (24 articles); Write in the form of letters with the tone of the first person (8 articles). Mo Bosang believes that telling a story in person can get a direct touching effect.
Mo Bosang is very sensitive to the beauty of nature and has a special interest in water. He can capture the subtle differences of light with the seasons, distinguish the glittering and translucent in winter nights and the ups and downs in summer nights, and observe the flashing light on the river, flashing in golden smoke and fleeting on the metallic water. Light often plays a role in Mo Bosang's landscape description, just like Monet's canvas, with various colors. Water is a unique element in Mo Bosang's eyes, which provides a series of changeable colors for his eyes. In his works, water is the passing time, the unattainable infinity, the mystery of creation itself, and it has infinite charm. This river is "silent and faithless", representing a mysterious world, a world of "dark abyss", in which the frightened consciousness becomes unconscious in the dizzy rotation. On the contrary, the sea is "rough" and "aboveboard", inspiring people to control the world. Water is often used by Mo Bosang to record his metaphors and metaphors. Because Mo Bosang has a unique sensibility to nature, Croce appreciates that his short stories are lyrical: "Lyricity is definitely the inner part of narrative development, which determines every paragraph without any confusion or nonsense."
Mo Bosang is a master of languages. He did not win with delicate and colorful words, but conquered readers with popular, accurate, powerful and acceptable literary language. Few writers can write a clearer, clearer and more difficult language than water. Few readers can't understand Mo Bosang's short stories because there is nothing obscure in them. Readers only think that Mo Bosang has found the most appropriate way to describe it, but can't express it in another word and way. Flaubert's language is a bit dry, while Mo Bosang's language is more infectious. At the same time, Mo Bosang also uses dialects, but it is always limited to what readers can understand. Due to the purity of language, Mo Bosang's short stories have become a model essay for French learners.
Unfortunately, only this information can be found, and only this article was published in 1925.