Fear

“I walked, going down into the dark corridors and then climbing back up again. I was alone; I cried out, and no one answered; I was alone in this vast, confusing house, labyrinth-like…” — a quote known to all connoisseurs of the Strugatsky brothers’ book “Monday Begins on Saturday.” However, the name of the author of this quote may surprise even a very sophisticated reader: Guy de Maupassant! The name of this world-literature classic is firmly associated with brilliant works devoted mainly to relationships between a man and a woman—works both funny and serious, filled with the unchanging, impeccable understanding of human nature that distinguished Maupassant’s prose.

But now few people know that Maupassant’s talent had another facet. In addition to realistic prose, he was the author of remarkable stories in the genres of mysticism and horror—stories whose psychological depth is no less than that of Edgar Allan Poe’s best works. Stories devoted to the darkest labyrinths of the human mind (“On the River”, “Who Knows?”), unexpected encounters with the supernatural (“A Vision”, “Fear”) and intricate pathologies of the psyche (“The Orly” / “Orly”).