In this week's Short Story Summer Remix from Season 1, Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins discuss Guy de Maupassant's short story "The Necklace." Before getting into the short story discussion, Cindy and Angelina chat about what a "commonplace book" is and how they each go about recording quotes and thoughts. First off, Angelina gives us a little background on the author Guy de Maupassant and some information on French naturalism. Then she digs into her thoughts on how this story is a fairy tale in reverse and what that might mean in context. Cindy points out the perfection of de Maupassant's writing and his economy of style. They also bring up some of the formal elements of the story, particularly the key role the reversal takes in the plot. The main themes they find in "The Necklace" touch on common human struggles with ambition, discontentment, loss, suffering and gratitude. Check out the schedule for the podcast's summer episodes on our Upcoming Events page. Sign up for the newsletter at HouseofHumaneLetters.com to stay in the know about all the exciting new things we have coming up! Don't forget that you can find the full show notes for this episode at https://theliterary.life/335.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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