Description

This chilling tale of one mans descent into madness was published shortly before the author was institutionalized for insanity and so The Horla has inevitably been seen as informed by Guy de Maupassants mental illness While such speculation is murky it is clear that de Maupassanthailed alongside Chekhov as father of the short storywas at the peak of his powers in this innovative precursor of firstperson psychological fiction Indeed he worked for years on The Horlas themes and form first drafting it as Letter from a Madman then telling it from a doctors point of view before finally releasing the terrified protagonist to speak for himself in its devastating final version